Houston Approves Ambulance Fee Hike, New EMS Charges

HOUSTON (Houston Chronicle) - The cost of taking a city ambulance to the hospital will go up nearly 70 percent under a measure approved by City Council Wednesday that fire department leaders hope will help Houston keep pace with rising costs. Additionally, council approved three new emergency services fees aimed in part at dissuading repeat callers from using ambulance service as a convenience. The ambulance transport fee will rise to $1,876.40 from $1,104.65, in the first substantial hike since 2012, aside from annual adjustments to account for inflation. Since then, officials said, ambulance transport expenses have climbed, leaving taxpayers to foot more of the bill because HFD is not billing enough to cover its own costs. The city levies an additional ambulance charge of $14.36 per mile that remains unchanged. Fire Chief Sam Peña hopes the transport fee increase will enable the city to collect additional revenue from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, which are based on the average EMS rates in each region. Around Houston, Peña noted, HFD has an outsized influence on the reimbursement rate because it provides the region’s largest ambulance service. By keeping the rates arbitrarily low, Peña said, “there’s been no incentive for Medicare and Medicaid to revisit the formula and adjust their rates upward.” Meanwhile, the package of new charges includes a $365 fee when a patient dies at the scene after paramedics arrive, a $175 fee when a caller is treated a...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: News Administration and Leadership Source Type: news