Proposal would bill residents $55 yearly for Ross/West View EMS service
ROSS, Pa. (KDKA) - We rely on our first responders when emergency strikes, from ambulances and river rescue crews to SWAT and search teams. But now one local EMS department needs the community's help.
KDKA-TV's Meghan Schiller talked to Ross/West View EMS about why it can't afford to not make a change financially.
The department serves five communities, including Ross Township, Reserve Township, Ohio Township, Millvale Borough and West View Borough. It responds to 12,000 calls a year and costs keep climbing.
"Our human resource costs are through the roof," said Chief Greg Porter, the executive director of Ross/West View EMS. "Our overhead is higher than it ever has been, and our capital equipment is hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Chief Greg Porter tells KDKA he's in a financial bind and needs to change it.
He described the current financial split as an 80-10-10 percent split. Roughly 80 percent of funding comes from direct billing of ambulance patients. Ten percent comes from the communities and municipalities it serves and another 10 percent comes from the voluntary subscription program donations.
"When each of these trucks leave here for a call, it's going to cost us $550 for them to roll out the door and if they take someone to the hospital -- and that's if, since a lot of patients don't go to the hospital -- we get back about $400. So every single 911 call costs us more than $125-150 dollars," said Chief Porter.
The solution on the table is to bill each of the roughly 29,000 households and businesses $55 a year to essentially "buy into" coverage.
"So, if somebody does use the ambulance, they're not going to have any additional out-of-pocket expense, so it's essentially buying an insurance policy for 911 calls for $55," said Chief Porter.
KDKA-TV caught up with Ross Township resident Sue Rulander and asked if it's $55 she's willing to fork over.
"I mean it sounds like a reasonable amount if they think that's enough money to help cover the costs that they have then yeah, I think that's reasonable," said Rulander.
West View's police chief and borough manager Bruce Fromlak calls it a "no-brainer."
"No one wakes up today and says, 'I'm going to be in an accident, I'm going to have a heart attack, I'm going to trip and fall and get injured and I'm going to need EMS,'" said Fromlak.
That's why West View has already voted "yes" on the ordinance, along with Ohio Township and Millvale Borough.
Ross and Reserve Townships will discuss it early next week.
"No one likes to pay an additional anything right? Any fee? But really the service that you're getting, that's that service that you hope you never need, but it's there," Fromlak said.
