1998-08-10 Regular Meeting and Workshop of City Council

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. . . e e City of la Porte Emergency Medical Services Rate Discussion and Proposal The City of La Porte operates an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Division which provides emergency life support services at the basic and advanced level, as well as transport and medical intervention en route to qualified medical facilities. The EMS operation is funded from three sources. First, user fees are charged to those who utilize the services of the division, the City has stated contracts with industrial and other clients and the difference is paid for by property taxes. At this time, the operation is paid for in the following manner: Patient Billing Fees 18%; Contracts 8%; and Taxes 74%. The fee structure of the EMS operation has not changed since 1992 however, our costs have risen dramatically (51%, from $696,000 to $1,056,000). There are several reasons for this increase, including: . There have been significant increases in the cost of our medical supplies, both expendable and non-expendable (for example, ambulances now cost $20,000 more per unit than in 1992). . We increase our in-the-field staff by 3 employees, or 25% to better handle the work load caused by the 44% increase in call volume. . Because of our rate structure, there are new medications and new procedures that were not available six years ago and accordingly, we have no authority to bill the patient for these services. We have conducted a survey of local EMS service providers to determine the rate structures currently in place. A copy of the survey is attached. All providers surveyed are similar to ours in that they are public providers In almost all instances, it is apparent we charge less for our services, this is attributed to our not changing rates in the last six years. In the last column of the survey, you will find the proposed rates for the City's EMS operation. One area of interest is in the Treat no Transport fee. This is a new fee to our operation. Currently, if we are called to a scene to administer aid to an individual and the individual either does not need to be transported or does not want to be transported, we have no way to bill the individual. This fee would allow the City to bill for compensation for the costs incurred to take staff and equipment out of operation and place them on the call. Attached is a chart that shows the projected impact of the new billing rates on an average bill for a patient transported. We find that the average bill will increase from $248 to $569. The total impact of this increase on our revenues is an 87% increase. This would increase the Patient Billing Fee portion of our revenues from the current 18% to 34%.