Fire Department charge for 911 call in Anaheim?

[squirrel]

Back in September I had a medical emergency at DCA because someone was smoking in an area they shouldn't have.

I just received a bill from the Anaheim Fire Department and my travel insurance says they won't pay the bill.

Has anyone else had a bill for the FD when you only needed an ambulance? Do they automatically come to any emergency? My insurance was already billed for an ambulance charge.

I did not make a 911 call so I have no idea what the Disney CM said.

I'm just trying to find out if this is normal? I haven't ever had a situation like this in Canada. The Fire Department bill is more than 3X than the Emergency Room bill.

 

[figment_jii]

How much did it cost? Was it for $350? I don't know anything for sure, I saw this on the Anaheim Fire Department website:
http://www.anaheim.net/article.asp?id=372

 

[squirrel]

That's exactly how much I was charged.

My TA is trying to find out more as she feels I shouldn't have to pay this, the Travel Insurance should cover it.

She says up here in BC if both respond we only get charged by the main department (so it would have been an ambulance in my case).

 

[seagodess]

I have never heard of that. I had to call 911 for my mother many times and there was never a bill from the fire department. There was a bill for the hospital or ambulance ride if she had one, but not fire department. There have also been times when the fire department and ambulance came, but didn't provide transpertation and there has never been a charge for that either.

 

[2tinkerbell]

Don't know if this applies to your situation, but, where I live, if you have a medical emergency and call 911 the Fire Department does respond as they have the paramedics, the ability to evacuate and secure the area (if needed), etc. The ambulance is a contracted company and do the actual transportation. Our taxes pay for the Fire Department (and other Emergency Services) whereas they do not pay for the transportation. You would get a bill for the ambulance. This happens no matter what is said because it is standard protocol for a medical emergency.

It is not uncommon to hear the fire department and then in a few minutes hear an ambulance, both responding to the same 911 call.

Edited to add: If you read the link, because of budget issues and the amount that the Fire Department receives from taxes is much lower than the actual costs for paramedic services, they are now charging for this service. It appears that it works the same as in our county - Fire Department responds to all medical emergencies.

 

[figment_jii]

My TA is trying to find out more as she feels I shouldn't have to pay this, the Travel Insurance should cover it.

Good luck! It sounds like it's going to depend on what your Travel Insurance covers and what it does not. The Anaheim Fire Department page said that some insurances cover emergency response, while others do not. So it's all going to depend on the fine print...

 

[Rubygoose]

Back in September I had a medical emergency at DCA because someone was smoking in an area they shouldn't have.

I just received a bill from the Anaheim Fire Department and my travel insurance says they won't pay the bill.

Has anyone else had a bill for the FD when you only needed an ambulance? Do they automatically come to any emergency? My insurance was already billed for an ambulance charge.

I did not make a 911 call so I have no idea what the Disney CM said.

I'm just trying to find out if this is normal? I haven't ever had a situation like this in Canada. The Fire Department bill is more than 3X than the Emergency Room bill.

I think your travel medical should be responsible for covering this fee, but those companies like to be picky about wording. Because it is a Fire Department charge, they are probably using that as a way to get out of paying it, even though it was a cost involved in your medical emergency. Look at your plan carefully and see if there is some wording that will work to cover this, such as "Other emergency expences". (I just purchased travel medical for our spring break trip to Washington, so the wording is fresh in my mind. My daughter had to get stitches when we were at DLR in 2012 and it was not easy dealing with the insurance people. Luckily we didn't get an ambulance and didn't have to deal with those types of hidden charges.)

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I used to work in law enforcement communications/911. In the parish I worked for (Louisiana, no counties) there was an area that the fire department also operated the ambulances that did the transport. Is it set up that way in Anaheim? Is the bill for transport or just the response? I think local taxes including taxes paid by Disney should cover the response. Medical transport is additional. I wonder if they're trying to recoup for any supplies or meds used. Strange.

 

[squirrel]

It was a response bill. They did not transport me as I was transported by ambulance. I only needed oxygen.

I get the Deluxe package of Travel Insurance through my TA so if it isn't covered I will be very upset. They did just change to this new company as all my previous trips were with a different company for Travel Insurance.

Bad news I have the same company for my next trip!

 

[goodeats]

Maybe this is the wrong attitude, but how can they actually bill you? Considering you're Canadian, I don't think your credit score would be affected if you just ignored it.

 

[Rubygoose]

Maybe this is the wrong attitude, but how can they actually bill you? Considering you're Canadian, I don't think your credit score would be affected if you just ignored it.

I don't know what would happen if it didn't get paid, but I believe that OP will need to pay the bill first and then get reimbursed from her insurance (the insurance won't pay the bill directly.) So, hopefully the travel agent can deal with the insurance company and get all of this settled before she pays the bill, to be sure that the insurance will cover it.

 

[SMD]

The City of Anaheim's policy is to charge for emergency responses.

http://www.anaheim.net/article.asp?id=372

Where I live we get 2 free responses per year per residence, then we have to pay. I don't know how that applies to non-residents. Here they started the policy because the city couldn't afford all of the non-emergency calls people were making, so they want to discourage it.

 

[figment_jii]

Is the bill for transport or just the response? I think local taxes including taxes paid by Disney should cover the response. Medical transport is additional.

From the Anaheim Fire & Rescue Paramedic Membership Program webpage (which is kind of a backdoor way of figuring out what the cost of medical response):

5. Why aren’t my taxes paying for this service?

After the passage of Proposition 13 in 1974, and more recently as part of the state budget crisis, cities experienced a significant drop in revenue, which forced us to create alternate methods of revenue to offset our costs. The actual dollars received from property taxes is minimal. Providing emergency medical services is expensive. To continue providing outstanding services, high costs are associated with life-saving equipment and training. The revenue from this program helps offset some of these costs so that we can include a paramedic unit in each neighborhood.

 

[Rubygoose]

Just looked over my travel medical plan from Blue Cross, and it looks like a fee like you described wouldn't be covered by my plan either. I don't think the insurance company would count this as "Emergency Medical Care Benefit", "Incidental Expenses inherent to Hospitalization up to $100/hospitalization) or "Ambulance service". Have you or your travel agent contacted Disney about this? If you give them all of the details, they should have the incident on file and be able to sort this out with you.

Wishing you the best of luck with this situation. Us Canadians just aren't used to having to pay for this type of stuff!

 

[SMD]

From the Anaheim Fire & Rescue Paramedic Membership Program webpage (which is kind of a backdoor way of figuring out what the cost of medical response):

This is an aside, but I am so sick of everything being blamed on prop 13. It's been 40 years, time to figure out a way to make things work, because it's not going anywhere.

 

[sweethannah]

N/m I misread the article

 

[lozzypop]

I don't understand why you have to pay for a service that you have no control over. The OP didn't decide to call the fire department - the 911 operator (or Disney, or whoever made the call) did that.

Are people going to have to worry about obtaining medical assistance if they are going to be slapped with a bill that should be covered by insurance but isn't?

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Moving this to our community board.

 

[squirrel]

I don't know what would happen if it didn't get paid, but I believe that OP will need to pay the bill first and then get reimbursed from her insurance (the insurance won't pay the bill directly.) So, hopefully the travel agent can deal with the insurance company and get all of this settled before she pays the bill, to be sure that the insurance will cover it.

Yes, I would have to pay it first. It was the same for the ER visit. Only the ambulance was sent directly to the insurance company.

Here in Canada if you call 911, you are asked Police, Fire or Ambulance. I don't know if the Fire Department comes if you ask for Ambulance up here. I've never had it happen before. I've come close to it at Pop Century but I said no when the resort manager wanted to call because I had no idea what would happen to my 5 year old niece who was with me.

 

[Malcon10t]

In most of California (if not all) fire rescue responds any time there is an ambulance dispatched. In *most* cases, fire will beat the ambulance by half the time. This is because they are more centrally located. In most rescue calls, time is of the essence. It has been shown, in cases of heart attack or stroke, by having fire respond, they arrive sooner and are able to start treatment sooner, giving the patient a better chance of survival.

Not that long ago, my stepdad had a stoke. Fire was there in under 5 mins and paramedics began treatment. Ambulance arrived in 15 mins.

When my next door neighbor suffered a heart attack last year, fire was there in 3 mins and began CPR. Ambulance arrived after 20 mins.