The Press Enterprise (Riverside, CA.)
LOMA LINDA, Calif. — As many as 350 people have signed up in the last two weeks to pay a $48 annual fee and avoid being billed $300 every time a Loma Linda paramedic treats them, Fire Chief Jeff Bender says.
The fees, which went into effect March 1, are seen as a way for the city to raise the $262,000 a year that it costs the city to provide emergency paramedics on its fire trucks. City Council members emphasize that the primary target of the fees is insurance companies.
City Councilman Robert Ziprick urged his fellow council members to amend the program it approved last June to waive the paramedic fee the first time a patient is treated, which he said would soften the blow to residents who are concerned they might only need the service once in a lifetime.
Procedural rules prevented the council from taking action on his suggestion, but the matter could be raised again at a future council meeting.
Bender said existing rules allow the department to waive the fee in hardship cases.
Under the program, nonresidents pay a $400 fee each time Loma Linda paramedics treat them, but they can pay a $60-per-person annual fee.
While the volume of calls to the Fire Department has subsided since the first week, when Bender said he was getting 100 calls a day, he said some residents still mistakenly believe that they are charged the fees whenever they dial 911.
He said the fees are only imposed when paramedics treat patients and that the fee only applies to the person who is treated.
Mayor Stan Brauer said the city had been relying on ambulance attendants to provide advanced medical care in the event of an emergency, but that they “would often not respond as quickly as our fire department and sometimes that lag time would be a matter of minutes.”
He said the city explored several alternatives, but “finally decided that there was no other option to provide that first-rate service without having the paramedics incorporated as part of the Fire Department.
“We knew this was going to be a substantial increase in cost,” the mayor said. “There is just no way you can provide first-rate service without costs.”
As the city’s budget has tightened in the economic downturn, Brauer said, employees took 5 percent pay cuts and the council saw no way around imposing the fee.
Copyright 2010 The Press Enterprise, Inc.
All Rights Reserved