Resources - EMS Billing

We are not the first municipality to struggle with this question of whether or not to save our single payer EMS system. Montgomery County Maryland has a single payer system and they have fought against the privatizers successfully for several years. Eric Bernard, the Executive Director of the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association sent me these resources,

The first is a press release from the MCVFRA

********

Next we have a study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine which concludes "economic considerations may effect EMS system utilization among under insured and low income patients experiencing a cardiac event. Prepayment systems (like our single payer system) may increase EMS utilization among these groups"
Some say this study is too old - June 2000. Key question - are economic considerations less significant today?

Annals of Emergency Medicine article

*********

Next we have Circulation - The Journal of the American Heart Association
This is from their conclusion,

financial concerns may undermine a chest pain patient’s intention to use EMS

Circulation article

*********

Finally, we have a 2008 study in Bethlehem PA - Patient and Physician Perspectives on Ambulance Utilization. Here a researcher surveyed patients after they reached the ER, and the results are interesting. For instance, twice as many patients who arrived at the ER without an ambulance said that they knew the cost of the ambulance, as those who arrived on an ambulance.

Patient and Physician Perspectives on Ambulance Utilization