Question: The CHA guidelines mention that air ambulance services may be counted as a community benefit but they do not mention ground ambulance services. Should ground ambulance services that are not covered by EMS be included as community benefit?
Recommendation: If your organization loses money on its ambulance service you can consider it a subsidized service and report the appropriate expenses in that category. Be careful, however. Even though the service loses money, does it bring in revenue to the hospital because of admissions it brings in? If it does, it is a cost of doing business and should not be reported as community benefit.