Jefferson County Ambulance Service Rates Raised

By Gordon HopkinsJefferson County Commissioners voted to raise the rates of Ambulance District #33, a move they say is necessary to keep the service viable.Commissioners met with assistant ambulance director Bill Seher on Tuesday morning, April 1, 2025, to set the new rates. The county has requested recommendations for industry standard rates from One Billing Solutions, the company that provides billing for the ambulance service. One Billing Solutions supplied a range for each category of service: Ground mileage: $16.35 to $25.07 ALS (Advanced Life-Support) Non-Emergency: $752.10 to $1,510.47 ALS Emergency: $814.78 to $1,742.37 BLS (Basic Life-Support) Non-Emergency: $532 to $1,342.25 BLS Emergency: $589.15 to $1,475.32 ALS 2: $915.06 to $2,381.65 Lift Assists: $125.35 to $188.09Originally, Seher recommended adding $200 to most of the services which would have brought those rates to the middle of the industry rate ranges. However, Commissioner Danielle Schwab asked, “I am usually middle of the road on ranges, but I’m worried. You know, thinking about what we’ve talked about with budgets, why are we not at the highest we can go?”Schwab said, “Personally, normally, I wouldn’t be like that. I’d be more conservative. But we have a system that we all really like and we want to keep right, but it’s struggling. And so why wouldn’t we max out the range to try to get more income?”“So, how does Medicare and Medicaid look at the rates that we set? Do they have an expected or an approved range?” asked Commissioner Mark Schoenrock. “I concur with what Danielle said, but I want to make sure that whatever we set, we don’t run afoul of Medicaid and Medicare.”Seher said he had spoken with Beth Grassau, Director of Operations for One Billing Solutions, “The way things are up in the air right now, Beth couldn’t really give me a good answer, other than it will affect our service.”“We could ask for the highest rates,” said Sehar. “Insurance might not pay it or Medicare might not pay it, but the patient would probably have to pay the difference.”Commissioner Michael Dux said, “Some of the patients absolutely have no ability to do it, right?”Seher said, “So, that’s a concern.”Dux noted that, if there are issues with the new rates, the county has the option to change them, “Correct me if I’m wrong. We can change rates every day of the year, if we really wanted to.”“Yes,” said Seher. “Probably need to do what we can to save the service.”“We’re committed to do that, Bill,” said Schoenrock. “The three of us are.”In the end commissioners decided the increase in rates was necessary. Schoenrock has noted on multiple occasions that, while campaigning for re-election, the number one issue among his constituents was maintaining the ambulance service.The county’s ambulance rates are set by ordinance. Commissioners voted unanimously to approve increasing the rates to the maximum rates that were presented.

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