Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: A Massachusetts woman begs people not to call an ambulance for fear of high hospital costs

Wednesday, July 04, 2018

A Massachusetts woman begs people not to call an ambulance for fear of high hospital costs

KED - What the article does not mention is that in part, one of the drivers for the precipitous increase in the cost of a ride to the emergency room is “ambulance abuse.” Folks who call an ambulance for unnecessary reasons. These are the folks who have a headache, a running nose or stub their toe and they are calling an ambulance. At the station we call them the “frequent fliers.” More often than not – “frequent fliers” do not pay their ambulance bills – read: the station goes uncompensated for the call; and these folks call a lot. So, who pays for ambulance abuse – we do. All of us do.

Woman begging people not to call ambulance gains national attention

BY ARIS FOLLEY - 07/03/18 03:20 PM EDT

A Massachusetts woman is drawing attention for begging people not to call an ambulance for fear of high hospital costs after she was injured in a subway accident.

Video of the woman from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police (MBTA) Police Department went viral over the weekend. It shows her in apparent agony after her leg was caught in a gap between a train and the platform on Friday.

The 45-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, asked fellow passengers who came to her aid to not call the ambulance. “Do you know how much an ambulance costs?” the injured woman asked one passenger.

The story first picked up traction on Twitter when a Boston Globe reporter posted about the incident after witnessing the aftermath of the accident on Friday.

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