Emergencies get more expensive

New York City is hiking the fees it charges insurers and patients to help cover the costs of emergency ambulance responses to 911 calls amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The double-digit increases, administered by the Fire Department’s Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, will go into effect Jan. 1 and are expected to raise an additional $4 million.

The 911 ambulance service charges increase from $775 to $900 for Basic Life Support Ambulance service, a 16 percent increase. The fee for Advanced Life Support Ambulance Level 1 goes up from $1,310 to $1,525, also a 16 percent jump.

Moreover, the bill for Advanced Life Support Level 2 medical response rises from $1,420 to $1,625, a 14 percent increase.

The fee schedule for the first time imposes a new $1,050 “treatment in place” charge if paramedics on the scene with a patient get virtual assistance to treat patients via video or audio hookup.

An FDNY spokesman said the higher fees were supposed to be implemented earlier but were shelved when COVID-19 hit the Big Apple with a vengeance in March. The fees were last raised in 2017. The cost of the FDNY’s EMS service is approximately $600 million a year, not including firefighters’ response to medical calls. The 911 transport fees yield $180 million in revenue — meaning the city subsidizes $420 million of the costs.

The government insurance programs — Medicare and Medicaid — typically pay lower rates than billed, and people without insurance cannot and often do not pay the difference or anything at all, according to the FDNY.