Gary considers getting tough on ambulance fee collections

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Updated: February 26, 2012 8:16AM

GARY — The city’s ambulance service rates haven’t gone up yet, but residents may need to prepare themselves — and their wallets — for the possibility.

Gary Fire Division Chief Daryl Smith told the Finance Committee at its Tuesday night meeting that the department is working on ways to lower some of the expenses it incurs annually; among the options are looking into equipment grants, allowing patients using EMS services to pay by credit card and possibly bringing its billing back in-house. Currently, an outside agency handles the billing.

Last year, the department paid the billing agency and a subsequent collections agency more than $120,000 combined for their services. According to Smith, the billing agency takes 8 percent off the top of any fees it collects for the city.

Since the department employs a “soft” collection approach, however, the collection rate for EMS service is around 33 percent of what it bills. Last year, Smith said, the department billed between $4 million and $5 million for EMS services.

“Our fees are graduated, but they start at $450,” he said. “Others charge at least $800, so we are way behind what other communities charge.”

Councilwoman Marilyn Krusas, D-1st, balked at the idea of raising the rates since so many elderly residents need the service. Nevertheless, the department needs to raise its revenues somehow.

“It’s not that I’m not compassionate, but if we’re really compassionate, we’ll be out of business in six months,” she said. “If we can get even 50 percent of the fees collected at the current rate, we’d be better off.”

The idea of bringing in a third party EMS service was brought up, but Smith said there’s no immediate plan to do that yet.

The Common Council will likely approve the salary and operating budgets for the two-year, $1,932,622 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant at its Tuesday night meeting.