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For a $40 per year subscription, a household can be assured that they won’t have to pay anything out-of-pocket for using the town's emergency ambulance services.
Ludlow’s offer stands out amid an uncertain emergency services landscape where a person cannot be assured ahead of time whether their health insurance - if they have any - will be accepted by an ambulance provider.
Surprise emergency medical bills have become a problem for many Americans.
In almost 80 percent of scenarios, an emergency ambulance ride leads to a surprise bill for the patient, according to a 2020 University of Michigan study into surprise emergency health care bills. The average surprise ambulance bill is about $550, according to the study.
If you take an airlift, the average user can be stuck with a $20,000 bill.
Typically, if a person uses emergency ambulance services their ride is either covered by the taxpayers in that community or their insurance companies are billed and the person who needed emergency medical care has to pay for anything leftover.
Ludlow’s offer of an ambulance subscription service says households that sign up will not be billed for any unpaid balance, if any, leftover from the insurance company. There is a list of hospitals covered by the subscription. Without a subscription, the town says the cost of an average life support ambulance run is $800 plus mileage.
Many Massachusetts municipal ambulance services are self-funded, meaning that service charges are just about their only source of revenue paying for equipment, personnel, training, and the rides.
To sign up for the 2021 year, download a form from the town’s website and mail it to Ludlow’s Ambulance Service.
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