Mayor Adrian Fenty’s decision to nearly double the cost of a D.C. ambulance ride has raised the ire of one D.C. Council member, who claims the public comment process was ignored and District residents were ripped off.
Using his emergency rule-making authority, Fenty last week bumped the cost of basic life support from $268 to $530 per ambulance ride, raised the cost of advanced life support from $471 to $832, and instituted a new $953 charge for “Advanced Life Support Level 2.” He also tacked on a fee of $6.06 per mile traveled.
The increases, which will become permanent in mid-April, are expected to generate $7.2 million.
At-large Councilman Phil Mendelson, chairman of the public safety committee, said the new charges would hit residents east of the Anacostia River hardest because they have the farthest to travel for emergency care.
“I don’t think a person should have to think about the fee before they call EMS,” Mendelson said.
Ambulance fees are generally billed to private insurers or Medicaid, though D.C. recovers only 52 percent of the charges. The District’s fees have not been adjusted since 2003; their increase is needed to ensure “continued, maximum availability of important emergency ambulance services,” according to Fenty’s emergency rule-making, published March 21.
D.C.’s ambulance fees “were well below the average,” said William Singer, Fenty’s budget chief, citing a 2006 study published in the Journal of Emergency Medical Services.
But in a letter to members of the now-defunct Emergency Medical Services task force, Cleveland Park resident Ann Loikow argued that “rates this high will discourage people from calling an ambulance when they really need it.”
“I presume you think you are soaking insurance companies but you should know that many District residents do not have health insurance,” Loikow wrote. “Even if they have insurance, there is no guarantee it would entirely cover fees of this magnitude.”
The Fenty administration held a public hearing Friday on the increases, only a week after first proposing them.
“We prefer to fix things quickly; thus, the ‘rush,’ ” Singer said in an e-mail.
But Mendelson argued “nobody showed up” for Friday’s hearing at Fire and Emergency Medical Services headquarters because nobody knew about it. And by rushing the increases through, Mendelson added, Fenty avoids a new law taking effect in April that requires council approval of ambulance fee revisions.
