Families from Saskatoon building evacuated for carbon monoxide leak stunned by ambulance bills
Upset because they did not call ambulances, or told they would be charged
It's a gas bill that Jean Romero never expected to get.
Romero and her family had to evacuate their suite in an apartment building on Bateman Cres. in Saskatoon on Jan. 14 because of carbon monoxide leaking from a faulty boiler.
The fumes are long gone, but bills related to that day are starting to arrive.
Twenty-nine people from the building were sent to hospital to be checked out for carbon monoxide poisoning. Those who went by ambulance are now getting the bills in the mail — $325 for adults, $150 for children.
Romero said people in the building are sharing their stories in an online group and that many are upset because they did not call the ambulances and weren't told they would be billed.
"We didn't ask for the ambulance," she said in an interview.
"They're checking everybody and they said, 'Oh, go to the big ambulance and get yourself checked.' So I told my husband, you go and the kids. I drove to the hospital."
A spokesperson for the provincial Ministry of Health said in an email that simply getting into an ambulance is going to cost money.
"[Regulations] permit ambulance providers to charge patients for the service they provide patients, whether or not that service includes transport to a hospital," the official wrote.
"While a patient may not initiate the call for ambulance service, he/she would be billed and would be responsible for the cost of the service provided by the ambulance."
Romero's bills total $800. She has insurance that should cover it, but she has to pay the money up front and then wait to be reimbursed.
She said others in the building are not as lucky.
Joseph Keewatin and his four children were all taken to hospital by ambulance. He's still waiting to get his bill and said it's concerning because he has no insurance to cover it.
"It's traumatizing," he said. "This whole experience has been on me."
Virender Bal lives in one of the basement suites down the hall from the boiler room. He's received four separate bills for his trips, totalling $1,300.
"My wife has insurance but we're not sure if it covers the whole family," he said.
"Everyone was panicked and an official said we had to go to an ambulance and go to hospital. So we just did that."
The health ministry official said it's not up to paramedics to talk billing in an emergency.
"There is no obligation for a paramedic to inform the patient they will be charged for the services. The paramedic's primary concern is the care of the patient that needs their care, and not whether the patient will be billed or not."
Medavie Health spokesperson Troy Davies said that the bill goes to the person taken by ambulance, unless it's a minor, and that the billing and rates are set by the health ministry.
The Saskatoon Fire Department does not bill people or property owners for responding to incidents like what happened at the apartment (fire crews did the air testing and co-ordinated the evacuation) and Saskatoon Transit did not charge for providing the buses used as warm-up shelters, said assistant fire chief Yvonne Raymer.
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