Ambulance Transports — We have received the suggestion from a citizen that we inform patients in advance about the cost of ambulance transports. Because many of our ambulance transports involve serious illnesses or injuries, it isn’t practical to have such discussions when more critical medical issues require our crews’ attention. Instead, we are using this opportunity to provide the information.
Property tax dollars provide the majority (more than 90 percent) of our operating costs. A wide range of our services are funded in this way: fire suppression, fire prevention (home safety surveys, smoke alarm installations, outdoor burning permits, etc) and first response to medical incidents. There is never a bill for any of these services. Ambulance transports — and the additional costs associated with taking patients more than 25 miles to the closest hospital — are not funded by tax dollars. To provide transport services, we must purchase and maintain ambulances as well as stock and staff them. Although billing revenue doesn’t cover all of these additional expenses, we recover some of the costs by billing patients’ health insurers. Many fire departments don’t provide any ambulance transport at all and the cost of operating ambulances is avoided when first response to medical incidents is provided from fire engines alone. In those areas, for-profit ambulance companies provide transport services. Private companies’ billing rates are much higher than ours. Furthermore, their collection policies are far more severe. At North Kitsap Fire & Rescue, with a letter stating that payment of the bill would pose a financial hardship, we waive the transport fee.
It has been suggested that this information be provided to patients on the scene. But on an emergency incident, our crews’ primary concern is patient care and — if necessary — rapid transport. We don’t require our responders to address financial issues; their priority is to provide care for the ill and injured. In most cases, patients’ prepaid insurance premiums cover the cost of ambulance transports. For those who are uninsured and unable to pay, the transport fee can be waived. Above all, we don’t ever want financial concerns to impact a patient’s decision to accept life-saving care. For additional information, call us at (360) 297-3619.
Burning Issues — During a recent burn ban called due to poor air quality, we received a significant amount of inquiries from the public about the ban. Fire departments implement fire danger burn bans when extended dry weather elevates the risk of uncontrolled wildland blazes, but it’s the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA) that imposes air quality burn bans. For air quality reasons, most outdoor burning has been permanently banned in urban growth areas (UGA) and it is likely that PSCAA will extend the “no-burn” areas further in the near future. Outside of the areas where the practice is permanently outlawed, no outdoor burning is allowed within a fire jurisdiction unless the fire department agrees to regulate it by issuing permits and responding to complaints. This, we do — to ensure that outdoor burning is conducted as safely and as cleanly as possible. When PSCAA calls a Stage 2 Burn Ban due to very poor air quality, even fires in wood stoves and fireplaces aren’t allowed unless such fires are the occupant’s only source of heat. The fire department has no authority to enforce indoor burn bans or to investigate prohibited burning inside wood stoves and fireplaces. When people called 911 during the last Stage 2 ban to lodge indoor burning complaints, there was little we could do — except to try and educate the public about the ban. Because PSCAA is the agency that imposes such bans, they are the best one to contact for enforcement. Find out more about air quality burn bans see the PSCAA Web site at www.pscleanair.org or call them at (800) 552-3565, ext. 6.
Michèle Laboda is community services specialist for North Kitsap Fire & Rescue. Contact her at (360) 297-3619 ext. 14.
