The Kirkland Fire Department began its Basic Life Support (BLS) Transport User Fee Program on March 1. The program was established to create a sustainable revenue source to support essential emergency medical services. Fees from the BLS transport user fee will help cover the cost of providing emergency medical service to the Kirkland community. Without this new revenue, the Kirkland Fire Department would have had to reduce service levels.
Emergency medical transport user fees are common among fire departments. The city has established this fee in a fair and equitable way with a focus on collecting fees from insurance providers who have already collected premiums to cover the cost of the service we provide. The city ordinance and billing policy have been developed to minimize payments required by patients while preserving the ability to legally bill insurers. We estimate that more than 90 percent of the actual revenue we collect through this user fee will be paid by insurers.
The fee is currently set by the Kirkland City Council at $600 plus $14 per mile. The revenue generated by the user fee along with funds from King County EMS Levy, property and sales tax revenue, and other funding sources support all of the services provided by the Kirkland Fire Department. The expected revenue from the transport fee is equal to about one-fourth of the total cost of providing transport services and less than 7 percent of the fire department’s annual budget.
Some patients will still have to pay. Non-residents will have to pay copayments and deductibles just the same as they would pay for any other medical service. These fees will be waived for residents of Kirkland. They will not receive a bill unless there is a problem contacting the insurance provider or they do not have insurance.
In most cases, there will be no out-of-pocket costs for patients or these costs will be small, and the city has a financial assistance program for cases where the fee creates a hardship.
Anyone who is having a medical emergency should still call 911. There is no fee for calling 911, the response to a medical emergency, or the initial evaluation and treatment for any medical emergency. If, after initial evaluation and treatment, a medical transport is recommended the patient can make an informed decision about going to the hospital for further treatment and how to get there.
Patients who decide to be transported for further care will not be asked for payment by the EMS crew and they will not inquire about the patient’s ability to pay. If the patient is able, he/she will be asked to sign a form acknowledging responsibility to pay the transport fee and authorizing the city to bill the patient’s insurance provider.
The council has established this user fee to generate new sustainable revenue to support emergency medical services in the current difficult economic environment. The fee is focused on collecting user fees in a fair and equitable way while supporting emergency medical services.
For more information about the program, go to www.ci.kirkland.wa.us/emstransport or contact Capt. Mark Jung, Kirkland Fire Department, at 425-587-3663 or mjung@ci.kirkland.wa.us. Do you have a question to ask the city? Send your question to: letters@kirklandreporter.com. Questions will be answered on a space-available basis.
