Rural Metro Ambulance

I have a rare disorder which leads me to call for ambulance service every 4 – 8 weeks. I have been transported and treated in hospitals around the world; Mexico, Costa Rica, Las Vegas, Miami (FL)…this is not even the first time I’ve reviewed Rural-​Metro. Other Reviewers have commented here about poor service from the Billing Department and I add my voice in concordance. Owing the ineptitude of the Department, my account has been transferred to ‘collection’ no fewer than four times over the last few years. My ‘insurance’ provides for ambulance service with no co-​pay. Rural Metro (RM) is contracted with San Diego as the exclusive provider of ambulance service so I (we, us residents) have no choice in this. Having to rectify and resubmit what RM should have submitted to my ‘insurer’ initially causes me lots of aggravation, anxiety, and consumes many hours. Again I stress that I am a frequent customer and have had no change in my third party (Insurer) coverage nor in my contact information (telephone, address, et cetera). I have been chided, threatened, and treated with disrespect by EMT/​paramedics on multiple occasions. Every time I am transported, RM bills my ‘insurer’ (Medicare) for the highest (most expensive) level of care. Honestly, I feel it is an unjustifiable expense for me to use an ambulance but this is the way it works: If I summon a taxi then I have to pay for it (almost $ 30) but, if I call the ambulance I pay nothing out of my pocket. The monopoly system promotes waste and inefficiency. As I’ve had so many contacts with RM I have more to say but, I’ll save it for another day.
I do want to thank Mr. Hruza. He was very kind, engaged with his patient (me), and sincere. His wonderful attitude, performance, and acumen was surprising and pleasing. Thank you so Mr. Hruza for practicing health care and not health business on me.

Hopefully you never have Rural Metro as your emergency transportation provider. While the service was ok their billing department is the worse! Its been almost 6 months and even though my insurance has paid them what they had negotiated for the payment Rural Metro is still trying to bill me the full amount which is not even legal! This company is as crooked as the City of San Diego who gave them the contract to provide transportation when the police call for an emergency transportation need. I’m on hold right now for the 5^th time doing a call between Cigna and them to explain they have been paid and to back off with the collections which they have started even though they have been paid! What a waste of time!

Super expensive. Timely service. But some of the staff aren’t very friendly.

My husband was treated at Scripps ER in Encinitas. Because there was’t an available bed for him, they had him transported to Scripps Green apparently by Rural Metro Ambulance.
My husband died two weeks later and I received a bill for $ 1,159.79 for transferring him.
Anyone who need transportation from hospital to hospital would be better off hiring a stretch limo.

This is robbery from Rural Metro. They have deal with City of San Diego. We should vote whoever gave the contract to Rural metro out of office.
I have good insurance but I’m still paying over $ 1000 for the ride. Something is wrong in San Diego.

I was told if I paid $ 100/​month on my bill I would be fine. I scheduled direct $ 50 payments every two weeks (day I get paid) and surprise!, they turned my bill into collections. My credit has already suffered so I’ll take the hit and go to my grave before I pay another dime. I will seriously die before I get into one of their ambulances. Total crooks and thieves.

Since August 2014 we have been trying to get this company to bill our insurance company (Tricare managed by USHealthcareWest) Monthy, they send a bill and we tell them to bill the insurance company. We write the insurance information on the bill and send it in. We call their number and talk to a supervisor. They keep saying we didn’t give them the insurance information. I have not received anything from Tricare saying they denied a claim or paid a portion. When we say we sent in the insurance information, they say we didn’t fill out another form. We tell them we have sent that in. The supervisor looks again in our file and says he sees it and he will send it in. Another month goes by and they say they want payment, we tell them to bill our insurance company, they have the paperwork. They only call our home number during the day when nobody is home.

One of the paramedics took a disturbing video of me crying for help (after they handled me unreasonably rough) on my phone. The experience was traumatic enough without someone taking my phone and recording me without my consent.

They won’t file a claim with my insurance to refund me the money I paid them ($ 2k). After 5 calls I still have nothing despite paying them right away.
Update– I wrote an email explaining my experience with them and sent it to their CEO and copied their complaints email box. A few days later the director of customer service called me to apologize and committed to be on it. A few weeks later I received a full refund in the mail. I am pleased they responded but am unhappy I had to escalate it to their CEO to get this resolved. This entire billing situation took 5 hours of my time.

in Jan, 2015, I had abdominal pain, and called 911. I was not given a choice of services to travel to the hospital, 911 just sends this service, so beware. The EMS drivers were cold and uncaring. My dog is blind and she was frightened hearing chaos. I needed to put my dog in a safe room, with her food and water before leaving for the hospital. The EMS drivers were very impatient with me, and their eye rolling surely did not make me feel better. They shuffled me onto a gurney, and took me down stairs. I weigh very little, therefore lifting me is not exactly heavy lifting and should not have been a burden yet I felt like that way. Then a bill followed for $ 1,788.45, which is insanely high. I encourage anyone reading this review to call LYFT or UBER rather than 911, if at all possible. Or, travel via private limo, will surely be less costly than $ 1,788.45 to go 10 mins. That’s more costly than a first class plane ticket to Europe. And this business is charging these insane fees for a 10 min. ride. This is robbery and a travesty of justice! Rural Metro is a very poorly run business. They do not have a working email. They state that their main office is in Chicago, and are unfamiliar with the drivers THEY HIRE in California. It’s their business to know, or am i missing something? needed to call on this matter multiple times, and get disconnected, while being transferred to a superior/​supervisor. Shame on this company. Will pursue Small Claims court if necessary.

If you think you are treated shabby as a customer… They are the worst employer.
The HR department starting with the manager is the worst.

I would not ever recommend this ambulance service to anyone on feb 8 my dad 76 had to be transported to the hospital these un human careless group of @##÷holes carried my dad out without a gurney by the arms and legs no back support once or ever no reason a gurney should not have been used my dad screammed out of pain my 10 yr old daughter witnessed this it was a tramatizing horrible experience i told one of them to use the gurney he yelled at me not to tell him how to do his job no considerstion one or ever these are the people you are suppose to trust with your loved ones lives makes you think twice about calling 911 so sad they need to all be retrained i complained to the chief all i got was an apology what about my poor dads pain n suffeeing he really felt his arms were gonna pop out of his shoulders he now cant lift his arms all the way up with out excruciating pain

I would give 0 stars for personal care and friendliness of the paramedics I dealt with (Truck #5026). I don’t understand how you can be in a profession to help people yet completely act like you don’t give a damn. Get another job for god’s sake and let people who care do your job. Go somewhere where you don’t have to interact with people who need help.

These people steal my identity and send me a bill of $ 1600++. But I have never used their service. Their attitude is that we have your information matched and will collect the money anyway.

A company called by a different name, i.e. «Rural Metro Ambulance» and only after asking did they admit that «We are Pacific Ambulance.»
They have tried to bill us for an ambulance service and they are a Medicare Provider. Then this «Rural Metro» called, I Returned the call, told them my wife is in the hospital, etc. The man was very evasive and almost confrontational on the phone. I asked them why they hadn’t billed Medicare and he said they needed an «Authorization» form signed to bill them. No other Medicare provider has requested this, they just want your Medicare number and the number of any Medicare Supplemental coverage you may have. The «Authorization» form they sent for my wife’s signature had a clause that said she would be responsible for «an amount in addition to what is paid by insurance.» I told him that Medicare doesn’t allow providers to try to collect any more than what Medicare allows. I also told him I would have my wife sign the form and would cross out the part about being responsible for any «additional» amount. He said they wouldn’t accept the form if anything was crossed out. Outrageous!
I also told him that Medicare makes it very clear that Medicare Providers are «Not Allowed» to charge patients for any amount above what Medicare allows. I also told him that Medicare warns us that Medicare beneficiaries are «not allowed» to make any such payments. He acted like he could care less.
IMO (In My Opinion), these people are rude, unhelpful in their billing practices, and I don’t understand why they act, (IMO) so shifty, uncooperative and suspicious. I would warn anyone to instruct your hospital that may call an ambulance for you to use anyone other than Pacific. We have used Balboa Ambulance and never had the slightest problem with them billing Medicare, and we’ve never been hassled by Balboa.

This ambulance company is contracted with the City of San Diego to provide emergency transportation. They do not work with any insurance companies and they do not disclose the enormity of the bill before transportation, and they have a very aggressive collections department. They will not write off what insurance won’t pay. For us, it’s an additional $ 1200 bill.