Portage mulls rate increase for ambulance services

After getting a few more details, the Portage City Council will likely increase ambulance rates for the first time in around eight years.

The council decided during a recent meeting to hold off on a vote on the increase until next month after finding out whether other communities offer discounts or caps on costs to residents who require ambulance service and don’t have health insurance, which covers part of that cost.

“We haven’t had a rate increase in quite a few years,” Fire Chief Randy Wilkening said during a meeting April 6, adding the COVID-19 pandemic drive up supply costs and nearby cities are increasing rates as well. “The rates we chose were in line with everybody else.”

Under the proposed fee schedule, Basic Life Support transports would be $1,150; Advanced Life Support Level I, $1,500; and Advanced Life Support Level II, $1,800.

Additionally, ambulance users will be assessed a fee of $17.50 per mile for pickup and transport to a hospital or medical facility.

The rates, last changed around eight years ago, have undergone small, incremental increases since then, Wilkening said. The mileage rate, for example, was established at $10 and had gone up to $13.

“Other departments around us were already higher,” said Councilwoman Deb Podgorski, D-At large and a member of the ordinance committee that reviewed the rate changes.

Council President Collin Czilli, D-5th, wanted to know if the original ordinance or the amended one included caps on the costs for those without insurance, Medicare or Medicaid.

Podgorski said the ordinance did not have such caps.

“I would like us to look at what other departments are doing,” Czilli said, noting people who lost their jobs and their insurance

because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as any cost not covered by insurance.

Councilman Scott Williams, D-3rd, chair of the ordinance committee, said he knows the amendment “sounds like a substantial increase,” but in discussions with Wilkening, “we needed to do something to bring our city in line with other communities.”

In other business:

The ordinance committee will begin reviewing business and commercial property tax abatements “to put somebody’s eyes on this,” Czilli said, adding if a company promised to hire 20 workers and hired one, the council can revoke the abatement.

“The ordinance committee has agreed to take that under its wing and see how valid the abatements are,” Williams said.

The ordinance committee will have 45 days to review an abatement and if they decide a business isn’t in compliance, the owner will have to be brought before the council for a hearing within 30 days, said City Attorney Dan Whitten.

The council voted to establish a schedule of fines for residents who violate the city’s fireworks ordinance. The first violation will garner a warning and from there, fines start at $100 and go to $150 and $200 for each subsequent violation.