One of the greatest EMS scams is run by the natives. It goes like this..... So when a paramedic is assessing your level of consciousness (LOC) they often use something called a Glasgow Coma Scale (GSC). It's a scale that goes up to 18 by measuring different variables which allows medics to get an objective measure of your LOC. Anything under 8 is considered severe and constitutes a maximum effort to get the patient back to a hospital (code 3). Now the natives in remote reservations live a couple hours (or more) away from the nearest trauma centers which automatically initiates air evacuation since it's too long of an ambulance drive for a patient with a low GCS considering they could easily die en route - it's all about the golden hour. This means you get picked up by the air ambulance staffed with advanced life support medics and flown into town in under one hour from start to finish. Can you guess where I'm going with this?
Now the easiest way for someone to get their GCS down below 8 without stepping out in front of a bus is to drink yourself into a stupor. Drink enough beer or whiskey and you'll be unable to respond to even the most basic requests. So when the indian's need a trip into town to go shopping or visit friends they'll drink themselves unconscious and have someone call for an ambulance. The air ambulance protocol is initiated and they're flown to the ER. Once they start to sober up in the ER they check themselves out against medical advice (AMA) and catch a bus into town to go about their business. This costs the taxpayers at least $5k a trip and they do this several times a week on just one rez that I'm aware of, so I'm sure they do it on other rez's as well.
