Complaint Review: American Medical Response

Hello All,

A warning about this company.  While on vacation in Boulder, CO this winter, my two year old son became ill and was transported to the emergency room by ambulance. I provided the ambulance EMTs with a copy of my insurance card and driver's license when my son was admitted.

My family gets back to NYC a week later and shotly after I get a letter from AMR requesting payment and/or insurance information.  I immediately called the company and provided a rep with my insurance information and was told this should solve the issue.  Several weeks later, I get another letter from AMR stating that I do not have a policy with the insurance company and they are demanding payment directly from me or they would send the account to collections.  First, I called my insurance company and confirmed that the policy was still active, that my son was covered, and that ambulance trips are also covered.  The hospital had already billed for services and was paid.  I wrote AMR back on this occasion so I had proof, since this seemed like it was going to end badly.  Included was a copy of my insurance card.

A few weeks after that, I received another notice stating that they had tried to contact me for insurance and/or payment and were unsuccessful and once more threatening to send me to collections.  I wrote them one final letter, included yet another copy of my insurance card, and sent it in.

I wonder why AMR is unwilling or incapable of billing insurance companies?  I see the same issues on most of the complaints here.  I suspect that AMR does not want to take payments from insurance companies where they reimbursement is not to their satisfaction.  In that case, they try to bully the consumer into paying the bill out of pocket in order to make more money. I pay a sizable sum every month for a family health insurance policy and refuse to pay out to these bandits needlessly.

If AMR decides to take me to collections, I have a paper trail of all my communications with them and the collections case will not hold up.  Regardless of what transpires, I will be contacting the NYS Attorney General's Office regarding this company's billing tactics.