Man Receives $750 Bill Despite Denying Ambulance Service

HOUSTON -- Everyone depends on EMS and fire departments to come to the rescue during the most desperate hours. But the KPRC Local 2 Troubleshooters uncovered a pattern of complaints from people who say they never called for help, but still got hit with huge ambulance bills. And even the law can't help resolve the disputes.

Jim Kowalik was involved in a minor fender-bender in December. An ambulance from Clear Lake Emergency Medical Corp. was called out. Seven days later, Kowalik and his passenger both received a bill for $750 -- the fee for ambulance services.

"We never should have been responsible for it, and I'll use the word -- it looks like a scam," Kowalik said.

The accident was not Kowalik's fault. Plus, Kowalik and his passenger never called for the ambulance. Medical records show paramedics were only on scene a total of six minutes and there was neither treatment nor transport. Yet, both still got a bill for $ 750.

"If my dogs had been in the car, I guess they'd all gotten billed for $750," Kowalik said.

Kowalik's not alone -- the Troubleshooters have received complaints from several other people involved in minor accidents. They said they refused treatment and transport, but still got billed $750.

The Troubleshooters then tried to talk with the chief executive officer of the company that handles all of Clear Lake's billing -- Intermedix. He was unavailable to talk with the Troubleshooters on-camera, but told them that if a paramedic does even a quick assessment of a patient, even if that patient is not the one who called 911, that's considered a level of care. Therefore the base rate of $750 applies.

By comparison, the city of Houston charges nothing if a patient is not transported to the hospital.

The Montgomery County Hospital District charges $100. But EMS Chief Allen Johnson said that fee only applies when a person asks a paramedic to treat him or her. Johnson said there is no fee if a person did not call 911, refused treatment, but a paramedic checks them out anyway just to be safe.

"We should be open to that, as well as the consumer, and there should not be the threat of bills for documenting such interaction," Johnson said.

The Troubleshooters also tried to talk with Clear Lake's EMS chief. He was unavailable to talk on-camera, but said that $750 was never meant to be used as an across-the-board fee. I

Clear Lake told the Troubleshooters that because of their investigation, they have now dropped the base rate of $750 down to $175.

Troubleshooter Robert Arnold reported that a large portion of the problem is that there is no state agency that regulates how much EMS services can charge patients.

There's also no state agency that handles billing complaints. That means if you feel you were unfairly charged by an EMS provider; you're on your own in fighting it.

Arnold took the findings of his investigation to State Sen. Kyle Janek, who is also a doctor.

"I'm very interested in seeing that the state has a dispute-resolution technique," Janek said. "There is a very gray area in there as to what point that person is actually receiving services from that ambulance."

Janek said he will now push for the state to begin monitoring billing complaints and create a system to help consumers resolve disputes, especially since the law is not very clear on this point.

The State Bureau of Emergency Management was set to begin tracking billing complaints on Sept. 1, but Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have put those plans on hold.