Thursday, August 12, 1999
Ambulance use to cost nonresidents
Harrison seeks to recoup expenses
BY LEW MOORES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HARRISON — People who do not live in the Harrison area will be billed for emergency medical service or ambulance runs beginning Sept. 1.
The insurance companies of nonresidents will be charged from $200 to $450 for ambulance service, depending on the service provided.
City council voted to impose the charge in order to recoup expenses incurred transporting more than 400 nonresidents in 1998. The increased cost of running the fire department prompted the move, said Councilwoman Deborah Acra, of council's Fire Committee.
“Everything is so expensive,” Ms. Acra said. “Eventually, citizens end up picking up that tax burden. This is a way for nonresidents to pick up that portion of the tab.”
Exempted from incurring the cost of ambulance runs would be residents of Harrison Township, West Harrison and a part of Dearborn County, where residents either pay for the service through taxes or through a community contract with Harrison for the service.
The city expects to collect $75,000 to $80,000 a year by billing insurance companies and Medicare for the EMS runs, “and it could possibly be more than that,” said Ms. Acra. That is based on a 70 percent to 80 percent recovery rate of that money, Ms. Acra said.
The money will be collected by a separate billing agency, which realizes 10 percent of the money collected. The remainder will go into an ambulance and emergency medical services fund, which will be used to help pay the cost of emergency medical services.
The city's fire department made 1,346 emergency medical services runs in 1998, according to Fire Chief Alan Kinnett. Nonresident runs account for about one-third of EMS runs.
Chief Kinnett said the money could be used to buy new ambulances and hire an additional firefighter/emergency medical technician. “As our community grows, we'll need more people to handle that,” he said.
The chief said billing for emergency medical services is a growing trend, and more than a dozen communities now do it.
Ms. Acra said the general fund contribution to the fire department could possibly be reduced, and the money allocated elsewhere, because of the recovery of ambulance service money.
“I will probably propose to council and the Finance Committee that the fire department budget be adjusted accordingly,” Ms. Acra said. “But that's council's determination.”
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