This Is our Village

Saturday, March 29, 2014

AMR (Our Ambulance Service)

Should you receive a statement for your portion of charges, associated with the above, I would call
their 800 number and advise them, that we in CV West Palm, have a contract thru UCO, that each
Owner pays into monthly..As one who recently was in this position, after having my health care
provider pay their portion, I was sent a statement reflecting the balance.  I immediately called, informing
them of our agreement and the matter to date has been closed.
In conclusion, question any statements you may receive regarding this issue.  Do not immediately
rush to pay....
Bettie Lee Bleckman

16 comments:

  1. Thanks Betty, good information

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  2. While I agree with Bettie, you will have a problem, as I did with PB Fire Rescue if they transport you. I was not an emergency case and they decided to transport me anyway, canceling AMR. I would not pay and kept fighting having to pay a balance after insurance paid them. Some residents don't know the difference between the 2 transporters and I believe an article in this regard should appear in the UCO Reporter.

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  3. There have been articles in the past concerning this subject but it has been a while since one has appeared. I just met with AMR because David Israel asked me to act as the UCO liaison with them. If you receive ANY bill coming from AMR call and tell them you are part of the Century Village contract. If you receive the bill a second time bring it to the UCO office, contact me, and it will be cleared through our contacts.

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  4. I remember interviewing a captain at the Fire Rescue station on Okeechobee that abuts our property for a UCO Reporter article a couple of years ago. I remember him saying that when 911 was called, they came out and assessed the situation. If it wasn't an emergency and time was not of the essence, they would call AMR (or whatever the secondary transport was at the time). If AMR could come right out, AMR would be the patient's transport. At times, however, the captain said, AMR could NOT come right out (due to their having too few vehicles, I think), in which case Fire Rescue would do the transport.

    It would be a good idea to have all this thoroughly rechecked.

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  5. Do we have any information or sign that could be placed at each buildings bulletin board. This could be handed out at the next Board meeting on Friday April 4th.
    Each delegate should take care of it for his/her building.

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  6. Referring once again to my own case of non-emergency, I called AMR and found that Fire Rescue canceled their call, so they,in fact, were available.

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  7. Ruthphild - the same thing happened to me a couple of times. When I broke my ankle, I could have waited 20 minutes for the AMR squad but the fire rescue said AMR was too far out and they would do the transport. The problem is that the EMTs are required to wait for AMR to arrive and the EMTs want to get back into service so they decide to transport. The EMTs are not allowed to leave a patient until their care is given to someone else.

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  8. My insurance must cover 911 transport by the red truck, because I have used it at least twice and not been charged. I thought the Village coverage was taking care of it, but it must have been my own insurance.

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  9. Lanny, I would say that your insurance coverage does not have a co-pay and that's why Fire Rescue was paid in full. If some residents cannot look forward to full coverage, we should investigate what can be worked out with Fire Rescue in these cases. AMR should be available whenever needed under our contract with them. If they aren't, maybe they should be picking up the balances owed. Residents without any insurance are fully covered.

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  10. My supplemental (Medigap) insurance is expensive (over $250/month) but has the advantage of no copayments. So probably you're right, ruthphild, the 911 red truck charges were fully paid between Medicare and the supplemental insurance. I've had extremely good luck with this coverage, rarely having to pay anything for several hospitalizations, tests and procedures, and being able to go to virtually any specialist or hospital without getting an okay from my primary physician.

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  11. Humana has a $250 copay for each ride, fire/ambulance. Not for AMR.

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  12. As all the president slots have been filled now, the duties of liaison to AMR have been given to Vice President Bob Marshall.

    I did write an article for the May issue of the UCO Reporter detailing what to do with the AMR billing issues. Please be sure to point it out to your neighbors and friends. If you have any more questions please go to Vice President Bob Marshall.

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  13. In addition to my post last month,
    I as well informed the Reporter
    of my experience and expect it will
    be published in the forth coming
    issue..this of course was prior to
    Bob's assignment, and following my
    discussion with Ed..however I did
    include the name of our contact at
    AMR and feel confident any of our
    resident's should be able to resolve
    all issues with a phone call to AMR.

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  14. Bettie, I have called 561 262-0556 twice over 2 weeks and left msgs, got no response. What contact do you have? (This was Sarah Kirkwood)

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  15. Elaine:
    The # I called was on the Statement
    which was an 800 one..speaking directly with an Operator, who verified our contract and in my case
    the issue was closed. I did not contact the above mentioned individual..Her name was provided to
    me,after the fact.

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  16. Lanny, your premium for your Medigap insurance is the major factor in not having to pay for Fire Rescue because it covers you 100%. Of course, the old saying prevails.... you get what you pay for. The only time there will be a prooblem is when there is a co-pay, but I wouldn't pay it.

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