By Jodi Rogstad
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
Copyright 2007 Cheyenne Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Three firefighters report that when they needed an ambulance last year, they were charged for services they didn’t get, the city’s fire chief says.
Based on that, WINHealth, the city’s health insurance carrier, is now combing through past claims filed by American Medical Response, the city’s ambulance service provide.
“We’ve have found some discrepancies,” said Beth Wasson, CEO of WINHealth.
Right now, the health firm is working with AMR to resolve those issues, she said.
Stephen Willoughby, Cheyenne operations manager for AMR, responded, “We are not overcharging. Everything is based on our rate schedule with the city and (Laramie County).”
The probe began within the past six months.
The city firefighters had called ambulances on three occasions last year for heart attack symptoms, Cheyenne Fire and Rescue Chief Guy Cameron said.
When they saw their bills, they saw an item that raised a red flag: AMR had charged $77 apiece for the use of its heart monitor.
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But AMR’s heart monitor wasn’t used on them, Cameron said. They had used the city’s heart monitor - funded by city taxpayers - as Cheyenne Fire and Rescue has paramedics on its squads and had responded to these three calls.
“Obviously, the bigger question is: Who else is being overcharged,” Cameron said.
Willoughby said in these cases the services were charged properly.
The $77 wasn’t for the use of the heart monitor. It was for reading and interpreting the data
on the device, he said.
Wasson said she would not divulge the size and scope of the discrepancies right now.
But she added, “The number of claims are fairly large. “
She added, “We’re trying to get some resolution in the next few weeks.”
What AMR had been doing was bundling everything into one bill instead of itemizing the services, Willoughby said.
There was no possibility that overcharges were imbedded in the bundle because they follow the rate schedule set by the city and county contract, he said.
"(WINHealth) asked us to stop bundling, and we stopped the next day,” Willoughby said.