By Christine Stanley
The San Antonio Express-News
CASTLE HILLS, Texas — If Castle Hills Fire Department emergency medical technicians help a resident more than twice, that resident will have to pay.
City Council Oct. 13 approved charging Castle Hills residents $50 for their third and subsequent call for EMT service.
Currently, calls made to residential addresses are billed for their second and subsequent calls.
All non-residents will be billed $100 for each call, including calls made from “non-single family dwellings,” or commercial businesses, schools and churches.
If a call comes from a non-single family dwelling but is made on behalf of a Castle Hills resident, the charge will only be assessed if the resident has already twice received EMT service at any other location in the city, including his or her home.
If any caller, regardless of whether he is a resident or not, is transported to a hospital by EMS personnel, he will not receive a bill from the city.
Councilman Douglas Gregory said he crafted the ordinance with input from the city’s police and fire chiefs and the city manager.
“Everything in the budget is really under scrutiny in these times,” Gregory said Oct. 22.
Council struggled to cut the 2010 budget and increase revenue during several budget workshops this summer, prompting a second look at how Castle Hills handles emergency medical service, including EMT calls, Gregory said.
Council switched the city’s ambulance provider last month from San Antonio EMS to Acadian Ambulance Service, saving about $186,000 in next year’s budget.
Council members had discussed charging residents for all EMT service calls Sept. 8 but tabled the vote until this month.
All EMT fees will go toward covering the cost of EMT supplies and a new emergency medical response vehicle for the local fire department.
CHFD EMTs are automatically dispatched to homes, businesses or motor vehicle accidents any time a person places a call, usually to 9-1-1, that could warrant medical help in their coverage area.
Dispatchers also get EMS providers, or ambulance services, on their way to the scene as well.
Historically, about half of all emergency medical assistance calls in Castle Hills have been resolved by local fire department EMTs without EMS transport to a hospital, Fire Chief Gerald Riedel said last month.
EMS charges are covered by Medicare and private insurance, but EMT fees are not.
Charging all non-residents $100 for each EMT call is new.
Gregory said council overlooked that provision when the former ordinance was passed last year.
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