Should a healthcare problem occur in an elder Santa Clarita senior, they are secure in knowing 911 can be called.  Having treatment within the “golden hour”, especially for heart attacks or strokes, can be critical in administering life-saving care.

Emerging now are unforeseen financial consequences of that 911 call senior patients never realized.  Wrapped in the complexities of Medicare, if a senior patient is transported by ambulance to the hospital but the Emergency Room evaluation results in discharge, a bill is sent to that patient for transportation costs.  No bill is sent if you are admitted.

How much is that bill?  Typically close to $1,000!

When seniors know a call to 911 might put them in financial harm’s way, there is potential for them to have second thoughts before making the phone call.  Grandma is in a tough predicament.

She is awakened by chest pain in the middle of the night.  Could it be a heart attack, or indigestion?  She knows, though, if she calls 911 and it’s just indigestion, it will cost $1,000.  What would you do?  Is this fair, to put our elder seniors in a situation where they attempt to make their own diagnosis?

I fear some of our seniors have already made the wrong decision and not called 911, resulting in death.

No doubt, there have been abuses of the 911 system, prompting government to be more strict.  But a simple solution might be for a check-box acknowledgement legitimizing the emergency by the examining doctor thus preventing a bill to be generated.

It is unconscionable for society to put those in their “golden years” at risk for missing the “golden hour.”  Medical decisions must be made by trained professionals, and not by those in pain or fear.  The financial consequence elder seniors face dialing 911 should be re-evaluated by legislators in the county, state, and federal systems as a solution might only be a check-box away.

Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D., is a housecall geriatric physician on staff at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and has been engaged as an advocate in many community activities. The views expressed in this column as his alone.