Soon Guthrie EMS will offer citizens a yearly subscription fee for emergency services. At the same time, EMS rates will be on the increase.
City Manager Eddie Faulkner and Fire Chief Dane Lausen made the proposal to city council members at the Oct. 3 council meeting.
Guthrie EMS had been working with their billing company for several weeks on both an optional subscription fee for EMS services and reviewing current billing rates.
Lausen explained that with the rising costs of fleet repairs and purchases an increase is necessary.
“It’s not a punishment to any of the clients that we service. It’s something we need to do because of the cost of everything going up,” Lausen told council members.
Advanced Life Services (ALS) that are non-emergency will increase from $1,300 to $1,600. ALS emergency increases from $1,300 to $2,300. Other increases include Basic Life Services (BLS) non-emergency going from $1,100 to $1,350 and BLS emergency from $1,100 to $2,000.
Many times, EMS crews will respond to a medical emergency and administer drugs to stabilize the patient but will not have to transport the patient, which is described as treatment with no transport fee. The current fee is $175 and will increase to $400.
Other increases include mileage from $16 per mile to $20 a mile and an ambulance standby at events increasing from $125 per hour to $150.
The fire chief says their billing company compared two other departments that are near the same call volume and size as his department. With the increases, Guthrie EMS, in many categories, still falls in between the two other EMS department’s pricing.
Subscription Plan For Households
Guthrie EMS is hopeful in January to roll out an optional subscription plan that will help citizens if they are ever in need of medical help.
The subscription would be for each family member in a household. However, it would not include Medicaid patients which is on average 12.6% of patients served by Guthrie EMS.
For $100 a year, the fee would cover all residents in the household for a period of one year. If a resident were to opt-in to the subscription fee and have insurance, Guthrie EMS would bill and collect only from their insurance and write off the rest of the bill that is owed after insurance has been paid.
If the patient does not have insurance, they are still covered, and the subscription fee will cover the entirety of their EMS bill.
“If we come out and transport or do a treatment no transport, we will bill the insurance, and whatever the insurance does not pay we will write off,” Lausen explained to the council.
Lausen added they are working with their billing company, which will oversee the program, and hope to have the service up soon for citizens to begin signing up.
The council voted unanimously (5-0) to approve both actions.
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