Burlington Raises Rates of Ambulance Transports

The Burlington Board of Selectmen voted to approve an increase in the cost for patients transported by ambulance during the meeting Monday night.

The rate change only applies to patients that are not part of Medicare and is meant to be charged to the individual's insurance company. The rate is based on the Medicare price cap plus whatever extra a community adds to generate revenue from insurance companies.

Burlington's rate until the meeting was Medicare plus 30 percent. The medicare cap fluctuates, normally downwards, according to Burlington Fire Lt. Mark Saia, and is currently at $540. That means patients were paying $162 on top of the $540.

The new rate in Burlington is Medicare plus 150 percent. This means patients, and specifically their insurance companies, will now pay $810 over the Medicare cost of $540. The extra charge does not apply to Medicare recipients.

The ambulance fees are split with Armstrong Ambulance Service.

Fire Chief Steven Yetman said the increase was needed to help cover the cost of running the ambulance service. He also said the last time the town increased the rate was in 2009. Yetman also said the average cost in other communities is 160 percent above Medicare rates.

Assistant Chief Patterson said that before making the recommendation to the board of the rate increase the fire department surveyed 26 area communities on their rates and received feedback from 25 of them.

We feel we want to be more in line with neighborhood communities," he said.

Selectman Michael Runyan said he didn't think that being comparable to other communities was a valid reason to raise the rates in Burlington.

"Being comparable to other towns is not good enough for me," he said. "I don’t think we should raise our rates because other towns have."

Town Administrator John Petrin said it was more than just keeping pace with other communities. He said that about half of the calls to the fire department involve an ambulance response. Last year the department received $662,000 in fees, about ten percent of the department's $6.1 cost of operation.

"Currently in Burlington about 60 percent of our patients have Medicare," Lt. Saia said. "The way the regulations are is that Medicare dictates what can be charged. We don’t have any leeway on that. They decide what patients are going to pay. It’s for the other patients where we can set the rates. We feel we have to catch up on the years we missed."