By Darrell R. Santschi
The Press Enterprise
LOMA LINDA, Calif. — Loma Linda Fire Chief Jeff Bender is spending a lot of time on the phone now that the city is charging as much as $400 when paramedics respond to emergencies in Loma Linda.
“We have, like, one answering person, so we’re all answering phones,” he said.
Fees took effect Monday but the department has been receiving about 100 calls a day since the middle of last week, when notices went out, Bender said. The City Council voted last June to impose the fees as a way to raise the $262,000 a year that it costs the city to provide emergency paramedics.
About half the callers are nonresidents.
Under the new rule, they must pay $400 each time Loma Linda paramedics treat them. Residents are charged as much as $300 per response.
About 25 percent of calls for paramedics in Loma Linda involve nonresidents, Bender said.
Offered the option, about 200 families have signed up to pay $48 a year rather than a fee if they use the service.
“We are getting some” complaints about the fees, Bender said, “but the more people that we can sit down and explain the reasons, the more people generally understand.”
Councilman Floyd Petersen said at the time that imposing the fees would allow the city to collect from insurance companies that in the past have not reimbursed fire departments for the cost of paramedics treating their customers.
Bender said that other cities have imposed utility users taxes and other fees to balance soaring budgets, but Loma Linda has steered away from imposing new broad-based taxes.
Accident victims will not have to show proof they have paid when paramedics respond, Bender said. City workers will check a data base of fee payers before sending out bills.
“Someone who is able to make a decision will always have the right to decline care,” he said, and would not be billed.
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