Ambulance providers : costs and Medicare margins varied widely ; transports of beneficiaries have increased : report to congressional committees.

Format:

Book

Government document

Author/Creator:

United States. Government Accountability Office

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ambulance service--Economic aspects--United States.

Ambulance service.

Medicare beneficiaries.

Medicare--Economic aspects--United States.

Medicare.

Ambulances--economics.

Medicare--economics.

United States.

Ambulance service--Economic aspects.

Medicare--Economic aspects.

Medical Subjects:

Ambulances--economics.

Medicare--economics.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ii, 41 pages) : color illustrations

Other Title:

Costs and Medicare margins varied widely; transports of beneficiaries have increased

Ambulance providers' costs and margins

Place of Publication:

[Washington, D.C.] : U.S. Govt. Accountability Office, [2012]

Summary:

Since 2004, Congress has authorized supplemental temporary payments, called "add-on" payments, to augment Medicare fee schedule payments to ambulance providers. The add-on payments increased payments for transports in urban, rural, and super-rural (the least densely populated) areas by $175 million in calendar year 2011, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. In 2007, GAO reported a decline in transports by beneficiaries in super-rural areas and recommended that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) monitor beneficiary use of ambulance transports to ensure access to services, particularly in super-rural areas. The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 required GAO to update the 2007 report. GAO examined, for 2010 (the most recent year complete data were available when GAO began the study), (1) ground ambulance provider costs for transports, (2) the relationship between Medicare payments and provider costs, and (3) beneficiary use of ground ambulance transports. To do this work, GAO sent a survey to a sample of eligible providers based on the 2007 report sample asking for provider costs and characteristics. The sample is representative of all ground ambulance providers that billed Medicare in 2003 and 2010, were operational in 2012, and did not share costs with nonambulance services or air ambulance services. GAO also performed a regression analysis to examine factors that affect costs, analyzed Medicare claims and enrollment data, and interviewed representatives of ambulance provider organizations. CMS reviewed a draft of this report and had no comments.

Notes:

Title from title caption (viewed on Dec. 31, 2012).

"October 2012."

QR code for online version of document included on title page.

Includes bibliographical references.

"GAO-13-6."

OCLC:

823385182