By Peter Abbott
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
SUSSEX, Wis. — The Fire Department can now charge for emergency services even when it does not take anyone to the hospital.
The Village Board voted unanimously Nov. 10 to impose “non-transport” fees on patients who receive either basic medical or the higher-level paramedic services from the department’s emergency medical service staff.
Citing the example of someone undergoing a heart attack, Sussex Fire Chief Colin “Corky” Curtis explained in an interview last week that paramedics give them “the same service they would get in a hospital emergency room. In fact, the paramedics talk to health professionals at the hospital at the same time.”
The Village Board said the new policy would apply to emergency treatment of diabetics, asthmatics and people undergoing seizures or heart attacks.
The board voted down a part of the proposal that would have applied to minor car accidents.
“Taxes pay for most of our basic services,” said Village President Tony Lapcinski, arguing successfully that minor car accidents fall into that category.
Curtis agreed with the board’s exclusion - “I didn’t like it either,” he said - even though it had been one of the suggestions he said the board had asked him to come up with to help the village save money.
The board did add a proviso to the vote that eliminated minor car accidents from the schedule of new non-transport fees at the suggestion of Village Trustee Greg Goetz. That proviso asks the Fire Department to continue recording the expenses incurred by such incidents to see if non-transport fees might be apply to them in the future.
The new non-transport fees range from $150 for residents and $300 for nonresidents for Basic Life Support (BLS) services to $350 for residents and $700 for nonresidents for Advanced Life Support (ALS, or paramedic) services.
Nonresidents pay more because residents have already paid for the emergency equipment and supplies with their taxes, Curtis explained.
Copyright 2009 Journal Sentinel Inc.