Is Uber a substitute for ambulances?

According to a paper by Moskatel and Slutsky (2019), the answer appears to be ‘yes’. In this paper, we ask whether UberX’s entry into a city caused substitution away from traditional ambulances for low‐risk patients, reducing overall volume. Using a city‐panel over‐time and leverage that UberX enter markets sporadically over multiple years, we find that…

Medicare Reimbursement for Ambulance Servcies

In 2011, Medicare spent $5.3 billion on ambulance services. According to MedPAC, In 2011, 5.2 million Medicare beneficiaries (15 percent of fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare used an ambulance service. Medicare Part B covers 80 percent of the Medicare-approved amount of the ambulance trip. How does Medicare reimburse ambulance services?  A 2007 GAO report describes services for ambulance Medicare ambulance…