The main point of the article is that private ambulance and fire department agencies have questionable policies and business practices that hurt not only patients but also their employees. It's supported with anecdotal evidence following several agencies that have filed for bankruptcy, going over incidents of lateness, understaffing, lack of supplies, and aggressive billing or lawsuits to get payments from patients.
1. Under private equity ownership, some ambulance response times worsened, heart monitors failed and companies slid into bankruptcy, according to a Times examination of thousands of pages of internal documents and government records, as well as interviews with dozens of former employees. In at least two cases, lawsuits contend, poor service led to patient deaths.
2. “Private equity has, in this case, threatened public safety,” said Richard Thomas, the mayor of Mount Vernon, N.Y, which relied on TransCare. “It’s not the way to treat the public.”
3. Do the Write Thing “didn’t sit well with the firefighters,” said Nico Latini, who has worked at Rural/Metro for a decade. “We operate under a high level of integrity and we do the right thing every day — with an R, not a W.”
The article addresses the public health inequities caused by for-profit ambulance agencies, which can put low-income families in a worse situation when they bill outrageously and/or sue their patients after sometimes providing sub-par or negligent treatment. Also shows the poor examples of emergency response when first responders are delayed due to understaffing or don't have the drugs/ equipment to adequately treat patients ("hospital shopping" done by desparate ambulance agencies).
Private equity firms like "Warburg Pincus, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company" that invest in emergency medical services.
TransCare EMS, an EMS provider owned by the firm Patriarch Partners that served East coast states, filed for bankruptcy; had trouble paying its employees and was losing contracts with counties.
Rural/Metro, another privately owned EMS/fire provider known for lateness, suing patients, and had deteriorating patient care, and was losing contracts with counties in several states.