City of Philadelphia Fire Department- EMS Division, Billing

Review: I used the Philadelphia Fire Department’s (PFD) ambulance services on August 26, 2012 and have been billed for the full amount of these services—$1,050 for ALS services plus $70 for mileage.

There are two errors in this bill that I am trying to get resolved:

1. I was charged the full ALS rate instead of the contracted rate that the PFD has negotiated with [redacted]. The contracted rate between the PFD and [redacted] for ALS is $628 and that is what I should have been charged.

2. The mileage was calculated incorrectly as 7 miles when the hospital is only 4.1 miles from my house. I should have only been charged $50 for mileage, but I was charged $70 instead.

[redacted] contracted rate

The PFD has a contract with [redacted] where the maximum the PFD should charge any [redacted] member for ambulance services is the rate published by Medicare, which is $628 for ALS services and $365 for BLS services. I received confirmation from both [redacted] and also the City of Philadelphia Controller’s office that this contract does indeed exist between the PFD and [redacted].

I have health coverage with [redacted], so I should get the benefit of the contracted rate between PFD and [redacted]. It would be completely unfair to charge me the full rate as though I had no insurance at all.

Mileage

The address of the [redacted] Hospital emergency room is: [redacted] PA [redacted]. The route that the ambulance took that day was 4.1 total miles, so I should have only been charged $50 if rounding up to 5 miles. I understand that the PFD uses Mapquest to calculate mileage, but when using the hospital’s address in Mapquest, the directions lead you to a place that is not [redacted] Hospital. Using Google Maps instead of Mapquest leads you to the correct location of the Emergency Room and it is only 4.1 miles from my house.Desired Settlement: I ask for the following two adjustments to my bill:

1) Please adjust the cost of the ALS service from $1,050 to $628 per the contracted rate between PFD and [redacted] which I am entitled to as a member of [redacted]

2) Please adjust the cost of the mileage from $70 to $50 due to the error in mileage calculation.

Once these two adjustments are made, I would be glad to pay the bill in full.

Business

Response:

See Handwritten Attachment: