Feds to Alter Medicare Reimbursement To Reduce Emergency-Room Trips

Under a pilot program championed by Dr. David Prezant, the Fire Department’s Chief Medical Officer, the Federal Government will experiment with ending primarily the practice of Medicare reimbursing local Emergency Medical Service agencies primarily for runs to hospital emergency rooms. 

Under the new approach, ambulance teams will be encouraged to triage fee-for-service Medicare patients and take them to their doctor's office or to an urgent-care center, rather than to a hospital’s emergency room if that’s the most-effective course of action for the patient.