Ohio EMS fees feasible for some, but not others

July 18, 2009 09:02 AM

By Ann Fisher
The Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Westerville fire chief has been spreading the news that, beginning Sept. 1, the city will charge for emergency medical service transports.

Pleasant Township trustees, meanwhile, are figuring how big of a levy would be needed in November to avoid EMS fees. Pleasant and Washington townships are the last two holdouts on EMS fees in Franklin County.

They’re not an option in Pleasant Township, Fire Chief Jay Noojin said, because they wouldn’t generate enough to support the department’s $1.4 million annual budget. And taxpayers in the southwest Franklin County township would complain that they were being double-billed for the service, he said.

Washington Township, in northwest Franklin County, so far can absorb the growing costs, a spokeswoman said.

In Westerville, fees could make up $1 million of the fire department’s annual budget of $12.3 million.

“It costs $1,000 every time we transport a patient to the hospital,” Fire Chief Bernie Ingles said. “We anticipate recovering about a third of that” by charging for the service.

Ingles said he’s already spoken to the residents who would be most affected.

“I’ve been to the nursing homes and assisted living centers, all three of those, and one of the community organizations, the Rotary,” he said. “And there’s going to be a public meeting in the city and a public meeting in (Blendon) Township with someone from the billing company there to answer specific questions.”

So far, he said, there have been no complaints. Because most cities charge fees, most insurance companies cover them. And those without insurance will not be billed, according to a city brochure on the topic.

Pleasant Township made 894 runs last year. Noojin said that estimated fees would bring in, at most, $60,000, far too little to make up the revenue generated by taxes.

Keith Goldhardt, chairman of the Pleasant Township Board of Trustees, said that the board will ask voters to approve renewals of two levies totaling 2.57 mills. One is from 1974 and another from the 1980s, Goldhardt said. Neither generates revenue.