Lawsuit Targets Washington Ambulance Service

The private company providing ambulance service in Spokane is accused in a lawsuit filed Tuesday of overcharging patients and violating the state's Consumer Protection Act.

The suit, filed as a class action, will attempt to pursue litigation on behalf of an estimated 30,000 patients living in the city of Spokane who have been transported by American Medical Response since 1998.

It will be up to a Superior Court judge to determine if the suit should be certified as a class action.

The suit will focus public attention on the level of emergency medical service provided in Spokane under a two-tier response system involving Spokane Fire Department paramedics, funded with property tax money, and AMR ambulance crews.

AMR, the nation's largest ambulance provider, has an exclusive five-year contract with the city to transport patients.

The company's response times and other issues associated with the current contract are the subject of an investigation by a Spokane City Council public safety subcommittee.

Committee members Bob Apple, Al French and Mary Verner are scheduled to hold a second public meeting on the topic at 9:30 a.m. Friday at City Hall.

Plaintiffs in the new suit are Lori E. Davis-Bailey and Lorraine and Doug Bacon, all Spokane residents.

AMR also provides emergency services in Spokane Valley, Airway Heights and other outlying communities, but the suit only involves patients living in Spokane, said attorney Roger Reed.

Both sets of plaintiffs say they were charged for the more expensive advanced life support service by AMR when they should have been billed only for the less expensive basic life support service.

The suit alleges the plaintiffs have legal standing because they are third parties who benefit and receive services under the contract between the city and AMR. The company's first contract lasted from 1998 to 2003. The current five-year contract was signed on Aug. 19, 2003.

Under a tandem system that has existed in Spokane since 1980, the Fire Department and the private ambulance company respond to 911 calls. Fire Department paramedics, funded with a 50-cents-per-$1,000 tax levy on homes, usually are first on the scene to provide emergency care. But all patients are transported to hospitals by AMR crews and billed for services by the ambulance company.

Under the contract, AMR can't bill a patient for advanced life support treatment if a Fire Department paramedic accompanies the patient to a hospital.

But that's what Doug and Lorraine Bacon said happened to them last year on Dec. 22, when they were involved in an automobile accident in the city.

Both Fire Department and AMR personnel responded to the scene, the suit alleges. Lorraine Bacon was transported by an AMR ambulance to Deaconess Medical Center, accompanied in the emergency vehicle by a Fire Department paramedic.

On Jan. 10, the Bacons were billed by AMR for advanced life support services at the base rate of $480. The basic life support rate is $348.

The suit alleges Davis-Bailey experienced a similar overbilling when her now-deceased husband, John Bailey, was transported in April and June 2003 to Sacred Heart Medical Center for complications arising from liver failure.

Fire Department paramedics accompanied Bailey. Instead of being charged $242, the basic rate in the old contract, he was charged two bills for $373, the more expensive advanced rate.

Reed, whose law firm represents the plaintiffs, said the individual overcharges, ranging between $150 and $250, are too insignificant for a single person to bring legal action, and that's why he's seeking class-action status.

As a potential group of 30,000 patients transported by the ambulance company since 1998, the possible overbilling could total $7.5 million.

"What we're saying in this lawsuit is Spokane citizens who've been victimized by overcharges not permitted by the contract have every right to seek legal redress," Reed said.

"Every Spokane citizen is a beneficiary of this contract and has a right to see its provisions enforced," said Reed, a former assistant attorney general who specialized in consumer protection cases.

The suit alleges AMR is violating "unfair and deceptive business practice" provisions of the state's Consumer Protection Act. If those claims are upheld in court, any damages could be tripled.

Jerry Lueck, AMR's Spokane operations manager, did not return a telephone call on Tuesday seeking comment.

In Seattle, Brant Butte, AMR's director of business development, said he was unaware of the suit.

"Nobody in the company has seen it yet, so we have nothing to comment on," Butte said.

In June 2002, AMR agreed to pay $20 million to settle charges that it filed false claims for ambulance services, billed to Medicare. The ambulance company submitted thousands of false claims for non-emergency ambulance transports that were not medically necessary or lacked valid documents, according to the Qui Tam Quarterly Law Review.

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AT A GLANCE

AMR lawsuit

Questions about the lawsuit? It is being handled by the law firm of Reed & Giesa, (509) 838-8341.

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