Complaint Review: American Medical Response - San Francisco California

They claim I still owe them over $700 after they presumably billed 2 insurance companies - see full story below. Don't let this happen to you and know that AMR and Bay Area Credit Services are in this together cheating ambulance patients, capitalizing on people's misfortune. An attorney needs to see how many cases have been passed on from AMR to Bay Area Credit Services based on "undeliverable address" and without due process, at double-billing two people for the same ride. I accompanied my 3 year-old to the hospital and they billed us almost $2,000 each! Same vehicle, same ride, same hospital. Even though they did not even access me, they billed all sorts of stuff to the insurance companies for my ride! I am sure I am not the first.

Here is my story, their actions, my detailed explanations why I know they lied and how they are screwing people over right and left, and in the end, it is their word against a patient unless someone steps it and ntices a pattern in all of this with other patients. I know, I have. Even on this website. Just search "AMR and Bay Area Credit Services"

I was in a car accident between Daly City & San Francisco in May of 2011. I didn't suffer any injuries, my daughter fractured a leg. AMR put a neck brace on my daughter and I accompanied her to the Hospital. 2 monhs later I started receiving phone calls to my mobile phone, but as soon as I picked up, they would hang up. after about 3 days of several phone calls per day, I let my daughter answer. They responded. She passed the phone on to me. They said "We are from AMR. You don't owe us any money, but we need your mailing address so we could mail you a statement." I gave it to them - a PO Box address in Daly City. The next thing I know, I receive a phone call from a collection agency. Turns out, the ambulance company charged nearly $2,000 for my daughter and the same amount of $ for me as they were two separate rides to the hospital and as if I were a patient!!! They double-billed us for the same ride and they told me that even though they didn't treat me for anything, I I was treated at the Hospital, I was automatically a patient and I was to be charged as one. No one told me that when I was hopping in that ambulance with my 3-y.o. as an accompanying adult!!!
After the Bay Area Credit Services called me, I called AMR and these were the lies they told me:

1. We called your house once and a child picked up the phone and hung up.
False! They avoided speaking to me for several days until I let my daughter answer and then they obtained my mailing address all the while lying that I had a zero balance.

2. They mailed my bill to the correct PO Box, but in San Francisco, not Daly City and claimed that all their attempts to bill me came back as undeliverable.
a) They had my phone number, could have called me again to verify my address.
b) How did they obtain my medical insurance information and billed Aetna, received a partial payment for me, but yet they did not have my mailing address from the same source that gave them my insurance info? They had paperwork either from a police report or SF General, to which they INSISTED on transporting me instead of the Seaton Hospital that was much closer to the scene of the accident and my home.

3. After I spoke to them numerous times on the phone and got to find out what their 'records' state, after I gave them my correct insurance information, they claimed to put my account on hold with the Bay Area Credit Services, yet Bay Area Credit Services kept calling.

4. I finally spoke to their "supervisor Sarah" who refused to admit to this scam, refused to pull out my case from the collection agency.

5. I paid the $500 balance for my daughter to the Bay Area Credit Services, but in December of 2011 I gave them the correct insurance information for myself. 6 months later, in June 2012 Bay Area Credit Services called me and said that I owe them over $700 AGAIN!!!

6. They claim to have mailed me a receipt for the check I already wrote, but I never received it. They said, there must be something wrong with my mailing address. I had this mailing address for over a decade, all my bills, financial affairs go through that address and I never had a problem with lost mail. Yet, particularly AMR and Bay Area Credit Services somehow have a hard time delivering mail to me! Just them!

7. I told them the Bay Area Credit Services that I have yet to see a single document from them in writing. They kept acting like they didn't hear me. They kept telling me that if I pay the balance over the phone today, they would give me a discount, but if they had to MAIL me a statement, it would mean I am LIABLE to pay the entire amount. I told them to stop trying to close the sale with me on a bogus $700 and to mail me a complete explanation of charges in writing.

8. They probably never billed my other insurance company because I called them asking for Explanation of Benefits, I was on hold for a very long time and they were not able to locate a claim for any ambulance for that date. When I called back to the Bay Area Credit Services, they said with angelic voices "No, look! Here, we sent the bill to them" Yet they still want me to pay the balance my insurance company would have paid. Why did they wait for 6 months to call me and now claim the interest as been accruing? Will they call me 6 months later and double it to $1400?

I don't have a single written document from Bay Area Credit Services and I probably never will. I know that if AMR had called me and asked for my insurance information, I would have given it to them and it never needed to go into collections. Here I am, without ANYTHING in writing, with nothing but harassing phone calls with very thick Pakistani accents with very simple American sounding names (the lie starts right away - even with their names). What to do?