pasaroanth

I'm not shady either, but I'm also not gonna turn down 6 figures a month. Have them write a shitty contract, then use your coding skills to write a new extension that blocks that.

I'll chip in on this with many years in medicine (as an EMT, paramedic, now MD). HIPAA is a pain in the ass as attorneys LOVE suing docs over anything. Hell, there are more than few law firms whose business is JUST teaching HIPAA compliance classes.

This said, HIPAA privacy components are there to protect individually identifiable health information (their phrase, not mine). One part that some providers don't understand is that they think they can't relay any information to anyone, including other providers, and play the HIPAA card which causes a major inconvenience for EMS personnel. In more plain English:

• A provider could say "I had this patient last night with an amputated arm and blood shooting 10 feet from a severed artery".

• A provider CANNOT say "I had this guy named John Smith last night with an amputated arm and blood shooting 10 feet from a severed artery".

There's quite a bit of gray are involved as there's not a very clear cut definition of what would can be considered "individually identifiable", as telling a buddy that you had a stage 4 lung cancer patient with kidney failure may be a person that he knew, which would identify them.

Obviously the safest way of dealing with this to simply not talk about it, but casual BSing with a friend about a crazy encounter you had without divulging their name is very likely not a HIPAA violation.

While true, most hospitals (mine included) are very willing to financially accommodate these types of situations. I once had a patient that passed out, got an ambulance ride to the ER, and ended up having a stroke requiring significant treatment and cost. He had no insurance, but the hospital evaluated his financial situation, cut his bill down to about 25% of the actual cost, and allowed him to pay $50/month until it was paid off which was very affordable to him.

Option 2 would've been just ignoring it, but judging from the CT scan I read he would've been dead within a few hours without treatment and his family would be stuck with a $2,000 funeral bill, no father to his 2 kids, and no income for his family.

Props to you. You're 60+ years older than I am and can comfortably stay up later than me.

....to an extent. A major issue that EMS providers face now is that many people can't discern between times that a person:

• Should call their doctor and go in for a consult (cough, cold, mild flu symptoms)

• Should go to urgent care (fever, heavy cough with phlegm, moderate flu symptoms, nausea, occasional vomiting)

• Should get a ride to the ER (fractured arm, laceration requiring stitches, severe flu symptoms/high fever)

• Should call an ambulance and go to the ER (major trauma, chest pain, stroke symptoms, syncope without immediate resolve, unresponsive with or without breathing, falls which involve significant neck/back pain necessitating using a backboard/cervical collar for transport)

I preach the when in doubt, call an ambulance rule, but unnecessary 911 calls overstress already busy EMS systems and excessively endanger the public and crew due to ambulances having to fly through town running lights and sirens.

I personally have sponsored a few of PR programs for the services in my area to educate the public about when/when not to call 911. We've had several cases where ambulances were tied up on ridiculous calls (stomach ache, cough, cold symptoms) when other more serious calls came in (chest pain, unresponsive/not breathing person) and response time was significantly delayed.