Very late ambulance bill

beefy234

I had an accident as a pedestrian in Cologne in November 2024. An ambulance was called and I was taken to the local hospital for treatment. I was given a bill by the hospital for 621 Euros which I had to pay before being released. The client I was working for said I could claim through their insurance, which I did and the claim was paid.

I have, this week, received a bill from Cologne town council for 609 Euros being the cost of the ambulance to take me the short distance to the hospital. My questions are

Is there a time limit on when bills can be presented? 16 months seems very excessive to me.

What is the likelihood of the insurance company accepting a further claim on the policy at this late stage?

Woodstok2000

Have You got an EHIC/GHIC? Assuming it wasnt a private ambulance that should cover the cost.

If not I'd refer them to the insurer and let them fight it out.

born_again

The client I was working for said I could claim through their insurance, which I did and the claim was paid.

I would contact client & see if their ins co has not withdrawn the claim. Given you will not have been a employee & it may only cover them.

Also it could be that what you paid at hospital was for the treatment & not the ambulance.

flaneurs_lobster

16 months does seem to be a little excessive, did they have your name and UK address or did they have to track you down?

Suggest you contact the client whose insurance paid out last time.

Did you have personal or corporate cover in place at the time?

Aretnap

No idea about German law, but under English law the time limit for enforcing most debts is six years, so being chased for a debt after 16 months is not particularly unusual.

If you were covered by an insurance policy (even the client's) then it should still cover you - they are based on the date of the incident, not the date that a claim is actually made.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6659346/very-late-ambulance-bill

In the UK the time limit would be 6 years. Obviously this happened in Germany so their legislation would apply. I think generally you get 3 years from the end of the year in which the debt came into existence but certainly wouldnt want to be quoted on that.

Insurers can accept claims vastly longer than that, though there can be some complexities. When I did some work for a marine insurer they were still dealing with claims from the early 80s

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81920577#Comment_81920577

16 months would be relatively fast for the NHS in similar situations. If it was a state funded ambulance I wouldnt be very surprised, cost recovery is so low compared to the cases where they are funding everything that its a fairly low priority in their hundreds of billion euro budgets -v- how a more commercial enterprise would be. The NHS only ever manages to recover 40% of the monies it thinks its owed and I'd strongly suggest that its overstated as there will be many more cases it hasn't properly documented it needed to recover