INSIDE

Fire district institutes ambulance fees

By Meg Olson

Hard on the heels of a strong victory at the polls for a new tax to fund the county paramedic system, Point Roberts fire commissioners approved a new funding engine for the local ambulance. For the first time in its history the district will start charging for emergency medical services (EMS).

“Excellent,” said commissioner Susan Brownrigg to chief Bill Skinner who put together the proposal. There was little discussion as commissioners unanimously approved a resolution establishing EMS billing at their November 9 meeting.

As of January 1, 2006 calling the ambulance will cost $125 if the patient is treated at the scene, and $450 plus $11 per mile if the patient is transported to the hospital. Commissioner David Gellatly asked if the charges were consistent with other north county fire districts, which will be responsible for basic life support calls under the new county EMS plan to be funded by the recently approved new sales tax. “They’re identical,” Skinner said. Medic One, the county paramedic ambulance service charges from $540 to $675 base rate per call, plus $11 a mile.
Skinner said the district will be using a billing service that other fire districts use, charging $30 per call to sort out who pays for what. “They submit the bill to Medicare, Medicaid, insurance or the patient,” Skinner said, a process further complicated if two EMS services need to split the bill, such as when the Point Roberts ambulance transfers a patient to the Medic One ambulance or another fire district.

“It’s going to be a whole learning curve for volunteers unused to billing paperwork being part of responding to a medical call,” Skinner said. “Initially some calls will go uncollected.” As the billing system gets running Skinner said he hopes the charges will fund the growing medical expenses the fire department has been paying with taxes collected for fire suppression.

To lighten the load on local volunteers Skinner said many calls would be transferred from the local ambulance to either Medic One for advanced life support or North Whatcom Fire and Rescue Service for basic life support. The district will begin working on interlocal agreements with those agencies that will provide for some remuneration for the local service when they bill patients. Currently if the local ambulance transfers to Medic One, only that agency bills the patient and the fire district is not paid for their portion of the transport.

In other fire department business commissioners approved taking the one percent increase in the tax levy amount allowed under state law, and a budget that stuck to running the fire department with less than the district takes in from taxpayers.

“I won’t produce a budget that taxes won’t pay for,” said Skinner. That means the department is budgeted to have almost half a million dollars in the bank when 2006 ends.

Skinner said the district needs to be fiscally conservative if they want voter support any time in the future for a bond issue or levy lift to fund major capital projects or operational changes.