Kalispell increases ambulance charges

by JOHN STANG/Daily Inter Lake
| April 8, 2009 1:00 AM

The Kalispell City Council unanimously raised the city's ambulance fees Monday to make up a budget shortfall.

The Evergreen Fire District's ambulance is increasing its use, and the poor economy is affecting payments to the city's ambulance service, which also serves much of rural Flathead County.

Meanwhile, wages, fuel costs and medical supply prices are increasing, Acting Fire Chief Dan Diehl said.

The city subsidizes much of the Kalispell Fire Department's ambulance services.

Kalispell is Montana's biggest city to have a public ambulance service.

On Monday, the council:

n Eliminated the city's $200 out-of-town response fee because it is not generating much money.

n Increased the mileage charge from $9.90 a mile to $14 a mile, which mostly will affect rural patients.

n Increased the fee for on-site treatment without transport from $368 to $400.

n Increased basic-life-support non-emergency runs from $284 to $550.

n Increased basic-life-support emergency runs from $627 to $700.

n Increased advanced-life-support non-emergency runs from $368 to $600.

n Increased advanced-life-support emergency runs from $780 to $880.

n Kept the most complex advanced-life-support runs steady at $1,032.

The fire department's four ambulances responded to 2,998 calls in 2007 - 38 percent in the county, 38 percent in Kalispell south of U.S. 2 and 24 percent in Kalispell north of U.S. 2.

Other city figures show that:

n The fire department billed roughly $1.333 million for those 2007 calls -mostly to insurance and Medicaid but 12 percent to patients. The city collected $748,000 - or 56 percent.

n The fire department responded to 2,708 ambulance calls in 2008, down 290 from the previous year. That broke down to 28 percent in the county, 29 percent in Kalispell north of U.S. 2 and 43 percent in Kalispell south of U.S. 2.

n The fire department billed roughly $1.346 million for those 2008 calls. But it collected $666,0000 - $82,000 less than in 2007. Patients paid 13 percent of the amount, while Medicaid and insurance paid the rest.