Sometime last month I called the ambulance to take me to the hospital. Didn't drive myself because I was bleeding at the time so I (normally?) thought to call the ambulance.
A few days later I got the bill, 750chf. Together with the bill came some instructions: I had to pay it myself and later get the money back from the insurance. So I did.
Today I received a letter from the insurance whereby they inform me they paid half of the ambulance transport. What gives? Is this standard in Switzerland or just with my insurance.
Tried searching the forum a bit and google...no results.
What level of insurance do you have? With basic insurance, the insurance company pays 50% up to 5000 CHF per year for emergency transport. So if you were to ride in an ambulance again, they would again pay half.
What I don't know - does the other half of the ambulance cost count toward your deductible? If you had met your deductible, would you only pay 10% of the ambulance cost instead of 50%?
Aha, so this is the standard model with basic insurance (which I have). It also looks like the other half doesn't count toward my deductible, as I'm already over it. In fact, they didn't even pay 50%, they paid 50% - 10% of the 50%
Is it just me finding this incredibly stupid? Would they expect me to drive to the hospital myself while bleeding and possibly endagering other people too?!
What I mean the cost was 762, kassenpflege 381, selbstbeh. 38.10, so they paid 342.9. Meaning 50% minus the 10% I have to still pay myself after going over my deductible.
Thinking back some parts of the conversation with the emergency technicians start making sense:
"So how do you feel?"
"Not so hot, I'm bleeding"
"Ok, but it's not bleeding that hard. Do you think you could drive to the hospital yourself?"
"Well, I could...but what if I pass out on the autobahn?"
"You're right, if you don't feel up to it, we could take you. But are you sure you don't feel up to it?"
I broke 2 ribs once at the bar. people wanted to call the ambulance and I said nono thats ok haha while im laying on the ground in pain. a friend drove me then.
After being in an ambulance 2x I will likely never do it again if I can prevent it. such a high bill it is scandalous I think.
In the USA we (a buddy and I) were taken to the hospital after being (attempting )getting mugged by 7 guys. we had to go to the hospital and we BOTH had to pay the ambulance fee of 900$ so 1800$ for a less than 2 min drive.
luckily the crime victim something something came in between
Many people here are up in arms as the local hospital has been closed - so a 40 km trip required to either Neuchatel or La Chaux-de-Fonds and ambulance cost not paid by basic insurance. Lesson learned- so either get somebody to drive you to hospital, or be a member of Rega and they'll get you there by helicopter for free!
Supplementary policies are all very nice- but older people like us who arrived in CH with pre-existing conditions are not accepted for such.
In the UK of course, everything is taken for granted and people call an ambulance to save themselves the cost of a taxi. But quite happy to take taxi to Tesco or the hairdresser's. Sublime to ridiculous again.
You aren't likely to bleed, vomit or lose control of your bowels in a taxi on the way to Tesco in the same way you might on the way to the hospital. Taxi cleaning fines are pretty steep.
Ambalances in France are really cheap, I went from Chamonix Mont Blanc to Sallanches hospital 30KM , the French government paid 50% of the Ambalance I paid 36 Euro! A taxi would have cost way more.
To me it seemed such a basic thing, that in case of a real emergency, the insurance pays for the ambulance that I didn't even dream they wouldn't do it. In fact, I did ask the paramedics if there is anything special I should do, just to make sure I don't have to pay it, they told me it's fine, the insurance will take care of it. Those were the exact words: "care"...not "half-care"
Don't the people at the control centre have to ask the nature of the illness / injury, though? If someone says "I have an outpatients appointment in half an hour." aren't they likely to be given short shrift?
They have to deal with people calling up with stupid stuff like "I've got a splinter." or "There's a pigeon loose in my kitchen."
I know there is an ambulance service which goes round collecting the elderly, disabled and bedbound to take them to their hospital appointments but that isn't the usual "paramedic" category of ambulance, more "medical transport."
If it's an accident, though, doesn't the accident insurance pick up the tab? My health insurance doesn't want anything to do with it if it's an accident and gets referred through my employer to SUVA or whatever it is (Unfallversicherung).
Maybe, but in my case it wasn't an accident, but rather the outcome of some previous surgery which decided to act up. Maybe I should've just stopped the bleeding with a 200chf bill right then and there...
People know the key words these days - chest pains and difficulty breathing can be casually dropped in to the conversation. Drives ambulance drivers and controllers mad 'cos they're not allowed to second guess the patient.
No you should have told them that you tripped over something or fell down the stairs and the impact caused a bleeding ;-) Then it would have been an accident.