The municipal transport service that costs $1,300 per trip

Ambulance fees aren't disclosed to patients in crisis and are rising rapidly

Photo by Jonnica Hill on Unsplash

Happy Finance Friday readers! This week’s edition of fines and fees is inspired by a personal experience that began with a call to 911. 

Surprise! You owe more than $1,000

Late last year while I was on a work trip, my husband had to call 911 because our son suddenly fell ill. (As if solo parenting is stressful enough.) By the time the EMS team arrived our son, who was 9 years old at the time, had started to come around but they advised he be checked out at the hospital. Our son rode in the ambulance and my husband followed behind in the car. The hospital examination went fine, I flew home early and we took him to his pediatrician the next day.

A couple months later, we got a bill from the EMS company for $1,058.

What?!?!? My only other experience with an ambulance bill was one for $100. True, that was almost 20 years ago…but what gives?

I have unfortunately had a lot of experience dealing with healthcare bills so I went into reporter mode and dove into our coverage details, the billing line items and called both the EMS billing and our insurance plan from last year to understand what was going on. Our insurance only covered ambulance transport after the individual’s deductible is met and our son (being a generally healthy kid) hadn’t even come close to meeting his. (This detail also reminded me why we opted out of that company-sponsored plan and decided to purchase better insurance on our state’s healthcare exchange.)

I was able to get the extra mile charges knocked off but we still owed $793 for a service that my husband was advised to get and that he felt was the best thing to do in that moment for our son.

I suppose it could have been worse. According to a 2022 report by the nonprofit FAIR Health, the average cost of an ambulance ride is nearly $1,300—a 23% increase from 2017. 

• One reason for this is that more ambulance services are billing payers for advanced life support, denoting a higher level of care—and reimbursement—than basic life support.

• Half of all ambulance rides result in a surprise bill, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

• According to the Consumers Union survey, one patient received a $3,660 bill for a four-mile ride.

Not really a public service

That’s one of the frustrating things about ambulance charges: We’re trained to call 911 in an emergency—public safety, fire or medical—and expect that help will come. 

But unlike police and fire departments, emergency medical services aren’t always publicly funded. Ground ambulances are paid for and operated in a variety of ways.