The federal government is launching an investigation into the Detroit Fire Department's EMS problems, reports Charlie LeDuff of Fox 2 News.
Fox 2 has confirmed that the FBI and state attorney general's office are investigating Detroit's EMS for possible Medicaid fraud.
The new inquiry, LeDuff said, involves whether the Detroit Fire Department assigns priority response status to relatively minor ambulance calls that qualify for federal reimbursement. "That's one way they're trying fund the system," LeDuff says in a nine-minute special report.
Fire Commissioner Donald Austin, Mayor Dave Bing and a EMS administrator declined to comment, Le Duff says.
In related news, he adds, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, introduced legislation Tuesday that calls for a state investigation into Detroit's EMS management.
LeDuff interviews Detroit paramedics who say the city usually has just 10 ambulances available at night, and only nine on a recent night when firefighters had to take two young fire victims to Children's Hospital in their truck. One died.
"There is no required response time for ambulances in Detroit," LeDuff notes. "Detroit's ambulance system has failed and everybody knows it."
