The Sentinel
CARLISLE, Pa. — One method of helping avoid high out-of-pocket costs associated with an ambulance ride to the hospital: Membership in a local emergency medical services company.
Most EMS services in the Carlisle area offer such an option, ensuring you’re financially covered for their services.
Robert Pine, chief of Cumberland Goodwill EMS in Carlisle, said such memberships are reinforcement for what insurance, whether private, Medicare or Medicaid, may not pay in the event ambulance service is needed.
“That covers you for whatever your insurance doesn’t pay, if you have a deductible, if you have a co-pay, if you don’t have insurance at all, for emergencies,” he said.
Patient costs are controlled by knowing that whatever their insurer pays is what is accepted by the organization as payment in full, says Nathan Harig, Cumberland Goodwill assistant chief.
Money the company raises by memberships is used to make capital purchases and support the service, defraying the costs of non-billable services, Harig said.
Mike Coyle, president of Yellow Breeches EMS in Mt. Holly Springs also said an EMS membership is much like “an insurance policy that you hope you never have to use.”
However, membership only applies to “medically necessary transports,” which Pine described as emergencies in which the patient needs to be immediately taken to the hospital for treatment of their injuries, or transported from one hospital to another to receive immediate care.
Paul Christophel, executive director of West Shore EMS, which is part of Holy Spirit Hospital, said it helps the patient by ensuring no out-of-pocket expenses for things such as medications or procedures, which are usually not covered by insurance.
“Some insurances will pay for supplies, but most will just pay for the transport,” he said. “We don’t call it insurance because it truly is not insurance, but there is usually a leftover amount that the patient is responsible for, so that keeps them from having to pay that leftover amount.”
Coyle said whatever is not paid by insurance is written off by the EMS company.
Cumberland Goodwill offers a family membership rate of $80 a year and $65 for an individual membership, while Yellow Breeches memberships cost $90 per household annually. West Shore EMS memberships cost $75. Christophel said local EMS companies have reciprocating agreements to honor the memberships of others in the area.
Pine said Cumberland Goodwill even goes to far as to honor any EMS memberships in the country.
For more information on EMS memberships and what is offered by each company, contact your local EMS station.
“I always encourage people to buy the memberships, there is no out-of-pocket expense for you then if there is a 911 call,” Christophel said.
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