Post #2981

I hate Private Equity Private EMS used to emulate the Fire Depts of yore and their culture of heroism. Now it's all about cutting costs, raising prices and milking medicaid. Private Ambulance services used to provide 911 services in underserved areas where the local tax base couldn't afford to provide a functional full time EMS infrastructure or saved the county money by providing BLS level Ambulances (responding to minor emergencies or providing extra personnel for major ones). Many are now letting their 911 contracts lapse in favor of IFT contracts (interfacility transfers) where they can bill more and havs less risk exposure. The consequence is that areas now have long wait times for Ambulances so that PE owned companies like AMR or Falck can bill the sh*t out of memaws medicare/medicaid for taking her between the nursing home and hospital. This also leads to skill atrophy as the most frequently used medical interventions you will use on an IFT are low-flow oxygen, patient repositioning and blankets. Bear in mind this is being provided by a professional trained to save lives in emergency conditions and private EMS has been a traditional stepping stone to big city Fire/EMS Depts once you got enough experience and stress exposure. So this will cause Fire Depts to have more inexperienced rookies and longer training windows costing more in taxes and potentially killing more patients.