Council moves forward on higher ambulances fees

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Updated: November 28, 2011 10:20AM

ELGIN — The city council moved along plans to raise its fees for ambulance service at Wednesday’s committee of the whole meeting.

The charge for basic life support transport would go from $355 to $442.74 for Elgin residents and from $444 to $692.75 for nonresidents. Advanced life support Level 1 would climb from $422 to $525.75 for Elginites and from $528 to $900 for outsiders. Advanced life support Level 2 would rise from $611 to 760 for Elgin residents and from $764 to 1,135 for nonresidents.

The city also would begin to charge for ambulance mileage, measured from the location of the emergency to the hospital, at a rate of $10 per mile for anyone transported.

Fire Chief John Fahy provided as supporting material for the meeting, noting that the last change in ambulance fees charged occurred in December 2001.

Fahy’s memo stated that “we are grossly undercharging for our services, especially to nonresidents and those who submit to their insurance company for payment, resulting in Elgin taxpayers subsidizing emergency medical services for nonresidents as well as those using group health insurance for payment.”

The Elgin Fire Department participated in a annual survey covering 138 Chicago area EMS providers. Elgin’s new rates would still be lower than the average for those towns for Elginites but would be higher than the averages for out-of-towners. For residents of the respective towns, basic life support averages $464.41, advance life support Level 1 averages $592.32, and advance life support Level 2 is $695.48. For nonresidents, the averages are $608.02 for basic life support, $777.94 for advance life support and $885.85 for advance life support Level 2.

As is the case now, patients covered by Medicare or Medicaid would not be not required to pay anything above what Medicare or Medicaid pays. Last year, 2,895 residents and 250 nonresidents taken to hospitals by Elgin EMS had such coverage.

Under the current ordinance, patients with no insurance are responsible for the entire amount of the bill. This would remain the same under the proposed ordinance, the memo states.

Wednesday evening, Fahy noted that at the first council meeting in November, he will present other potential charges from the city for services rendered by the fire department that typically are covered by insurance.

The moves come in light of the city addressing a budget for next year that might have a hole of $10 million to $13 million to fill to be put in balance.

The proposed city budget will be provided to the council and will be up on the city’s website on Nov. 8. The council will have a retreat to discuss the budget on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. in city council chambers.

Special budget sessions are scheduled for Nov. 16 and 28 (if needed) at 5 p.m. Another special meeting will take place Nov. 30 at 5 p.m. at city hall.

The public hearings on the budget are set for Dec. 7 and Dec. 21 at the city council meeting, with the budget due to Kane County on Dec. 23.