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The Post is ready for its readers to be outraged with an "Exclusive" on how some people abuse 911, the city ambulances and emergency rooms. Example one is "Ricky Alardo, a homeless alcoholic nicknamed Ricky Ricardo" who "swigs cheap vodka by day at his favorite corner in Washington Heights, then calls an ambulance to chauffeur him to the hospital for a free meal and a warm place to sleep, courtesy of taxpayers who fund his Medicaid benefits." (More details here.) He calls 911 "four or five times a week," which works out to $300,000 a year—or $3.9 million over the 13 years he's been running the scam. Alardo proudly says the medics "treat me like a king"—the Post explains,"By law, EMS workers cannot refuse to treat or transport any patient. And ERs have to at least evaluate and stabilize homeless patients." One medic said, "It's not always easy to pick up these guys and take them in. But our policy is: 'You call, we haul.' We have no other choice," while another admits, "When Ricky passes on, I'll probably even go to his funeral. I've seen him almost every day for the last 13 years."
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Time to fix the rules.
Stimulate the Economy...Shoot a Bum!
That would cripple the economy lol..
while people like this bum and how they live is obviously fucked
the real issue here is why in the hell it should cost ANYONE $1200 to get an ambulance to the hospital. and that sounds like a low number from personal experience.
in cases like these, someone (hospitals, doctors, etc) do the charging and we the tax payers, erm, do the paying.
Um, duh...it's because of our public healthcare programs and fraudsters like this guy.
and, duh, it seems like its not really in the people charging $800-$1200 a trip's best interests to stop picking up drunk bums.
States and cities have regulations in place to treat all.
did they find Viane Delgado yet?
Did they figure out Al Sharpton's tax issues?
A big sad smile widens on my face.
Why can't the ambulance just take Ricky Alardo to Riker's Island?
Riker's Island could also provide him with a free meal and a warm place to sleep. And since there are medical facilities there they could also detox him at the same time.
...might be worth correcting your typo showing $300k / week instead of $300k / year. Still absurd, but quite a different picture.
If the individual needs medical attention perhaps they should give him an extra dose or two just to make sure it works and is long lasting.
"Alardo proudly says the medics "treat me like a king""
Yes, like a king that shits his pants. Where's Patrick Bateman when you need him?
For "$3.9 million" you could put this garbage up in the Apthorpe; for $39 you can get "Mugsy" his sometime drinking companion to stab him in his sleep.
That is really, really cruel. Do you realize that the price of bad vodka has gone up 30% in the last year. At least give "Mugsy" a decent tip.
From someone who works EMS, this is true. There are plenty of so-called frequent fliers that bog down the system.
What an ambulance ride costs has nothing to do with the EMTs and paramedics providing care.
We cannot turn these people away. In some cities, these people go to detox or to a police holding cell. Not here. Here they go to the ER.
Not to mention that these calls delay ambulances from responding to legitimate calls.
To save money can't the city use dump trucks or private sanitation to deliver these people to their proper destinations?
Sadly, the tipping fees are much higher for infectious medical waste but if they're clever, they can zip up the sleeping bag and avoid that wet waste surcharge.
Cheese K. Reist. It's always somebody who has to push the envelope and ruin things for the rest of us. This is not unlike the dumbass with the explosives in his shoes whose actions have resulted in millions of innocent civilians the indignity of having to take their shoes off and walk on the filthy floors of the airline security checkpoints.
Worse, yet, this is more fodder for the pols who claim that a public health care option is too expensive and use Medicare as an example.
Well the idea of the fairness of such a program is something you hit on and can't deny:
Those of us who take care of ourselves will be forced to pay for those who stuff Big Macs and Cokes down their pieholes everyday and require 1000x more healthcare.
Catastrophic injuries and cancers are one thing, but obesity causes the most maladies in this country. The irresponsible like those who #19 portrays (the stubborn), the downright irresponsible and the fast food eaters will cost this country trillions a year.
Frankly, this can also be tied back the the federal government and their farming and trading policies.
I'd prefer they don't screw up the high quality health care we have in this country and stop creating more federal programs.
The Post doesn't quite get it... If there where actual resources in US urban areas for the mentally ill /addicted homeless, then this wouldn't happen. The bottom line is pay one way or another. But do we want to actually help people or just enable their sick behaviour?
But seems the best way to deal with urban issues is to brush them under the carpet, and then point fingers when the aftermath is exposed.
as for you all calling for this guy's death. ... you are the sheep that the Post prey upon. i.e. idiots.
Your last line is the major problem in this debate: Is it your right to live til 90?
No one here is calling for his death.
But take for instance an obese person who is on Medicaid, had their 3rd angioplasty, is on expensive blood thinners, and had 3 expensive trips to the ER to stave off heart failure.
And then he goes back to Arby's the next week and pounds 5 big beef and cheddars.
Is it really my fault--or should I feel bad--if he dies because he can't afford health insurance and any fees?
Or is it his fault for not taking care of himself?
I have picked up Ricky Alardo on W. 181/Bennett Ave more times in the last two years than I can even count. 9 times out of 10 he is non-violent and just wants to go sleep it off. I have even picked him up twice in the same shift and a three times in a day when I was doing a double shift. There is really nothing we can do as far as not bringing him. If you are intoxicated you have to go to the hospital (with extremely few exceptions). It does get frustrating on our side but it is immensely more frustrating to the ER nurses who have to do countless procedures for guys like Ricky. Ricky is actually one of the good ones, he never lies about having chest pain or difficulty breathing.
As to the person who asked why it is $1200 for an advanced life support ambulance that comes to pick you up during your heart attack, stroke, or cardiac arrest, you will realize one day when you or your loved one has no pulse and gets one back because of us. The amount of medications we use, equipment, energy, gas, ambulance personnel, dispatchers, OT pay, fire department supervisors, and police department resources, it adds up very quickly. The diabetic who doesn't manage his diabetes at all and we pick up for altered mental status with a sugar of 23 needs glucagon and an IV which is expensive. Enough said.
Bravo.
"As to the person who asked why it is $1200 for an advanced life support ambulance that comes to pick you up during your heart attack, stroke, or cardiac arrest, you will realize one day when you or your loved one has no pulse and gets one back because of us. The amount of medications we use, equipment, energy, gas, ambulance personnel, dispatchers, OT pay, fire department supervisors, and police department resources, it adds up very quickly. The diabetic who doesn't manage his diabetes at all and we pick up for altered mental status with a sugar of 23 needs glucagon and an IV which is expensive."
and the times homeless bums who need to sleep it off get picked up and require none of the above, the service provided are totally worth $1200. .. OT, fire department supervisors, police department resources...
please.
no doubt people like you work hard and do good work - thank you for that.. but the fact is that the costs of medical services are insanely inflated and insane.
go and check out what hospitals throw away every day, ask people like me who have been charged $400 for a "visual observation/evaulation" which means someone looked at me, saw i wasnt bleeding and asked me questions for five minutes, and you will acknowledge that wastefulness and abuse exists.
Umm, he's drinking on the street, which is a misdemeanor. Why doesn't EMS call the cops one of these days...doubt he'll enjoy sleeping in a cell as much as a comfy hospital bed.
Is the homeless guy calling 911 from his new iPhone?
Okay, medical expenses and arguments of policy aside -
Why isn't this guy in jail? He's defrauded the city out of millions of dollars and it's fairly obvious he's not going to change his ways.
Does anyone know how much it costs for 13 years of prison? If it's less than the 3.9 million, jail is a more cost effective place for this trash to rot.
The way the world works is that Medicare only pay for the actual cost of each ambulance trip, not the total cost of running the ambulance (there is an art of having the ambulance do enough calls to break even vs. having enough around so there is one available when you need it), so the city tries to get the actual cost number as high as possible to cover the cost of the downtime. Medicaid pays less than actual costs, so private insurance has to be charged more, coupled with the fact that unlike fire and police, 911 ambulances (both the FDNY and hospital-based ambulances in the 911 system) are NOT treated as a public utility and NOT funded totally from tax dollars. Which is where you get these crazy numbers from.
If the public actually knew how few ambulances there actually were in NYC and how there are NO reserve ambulance crews to respond in a disaster, they would be surprised. Any social work program to limit frequent callers would help- drunks take up a huge amount of ambulance resources in NYC.
Oh-by the way, ambulance crews are generally pretty smart, want to help nice people when they are sick, and DO know how to make the system work as efficiently as possible. It is just generally easier to "just take the drunk to the hospital" quickly than to try to get the cops to cite (which does not stop the drunk from calling again) or trying to deal with the unwieldy system of getting a FDNY physician to permit not transporting the drunk (which, if they are sane, they will never do because it just might be a head injury 0.0000001% of the time and why take the risk?)
Scot (a retired NYC paramedic)