Agency To Conduct Study After WSPA Story

A state agency will soon conduct a study to see if Medicaid is paying for frivolous emergency ambulance rides to the hospital. The upcoming study by the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is the result of previous News Channel 7 investigations that show people often abuse Greenville County’s EMS system.

911 recordings obtained from Greenville County shows the EMS department often acts more like a glorified taxi cab service than an emergency responder. We heard recordings asking for an ambulance from women who cut her finger the day before that wasn’t bleeding; a constipated woman, and an unhurt woman who needed help to the bathroom.

Medicaid often pays hundreds of dollars per emergency ambulance ride. Results of the study will not be available for a few weeks.