Fee for Paramedic Services OKd

Suffering an injury or emergency serious enough for an ambulance ride will be more expensive next year for about 1 million county residents.

Directors of the Orange County Fire Authority voted 14 to 4 Thursday to charge a fee for paramedic services, which probably will increase the cost of an ambulance ride to about $450, a $150 increase.

The additional charge is expected to generate about $1.5 million for the struggling 2-year-old agency, which was established after the county’s bankruptcy in 1995 to serve 19 cities and all unincorporated areas.

The fee hike followed a yearlong effort to resolve a budget deficit that was estimated at up to $4 million. That problem was resolved with increased tax revenue, but the authority already had decided to recover costs for paramedic services.

“All we are trying to do is to break even,” said Cypress Mayor Tom Carroll. “We’re not trying to make a profit.” The authority contracts with ambulance companies, which receive $300 for each trip. Typically, a paramedic who arrives at the scene on a firetruck accompanies the patient in the ambulance at no extra cost.

The authority had originally pursued a plan to take over emergency transportation from the private sector entirely, but ambulance companies protested.

The authority voted unanimously Thursday against pursuing that plan.

It was further stymied in June when a state Supreme Court decision in a San Bernardino case made it much more difficult for governments to get into the ambulance business.

If the authority had done that, the fee to the user would have been $270, county officials said.

San Clemente Mayor Patrick M. Ahle said that he still would have preferred to take over services but he realized it would be legally difficult.

“In my mind, it was the best thing to do. . . . The plan we have adopted hits the working uninsured hardest. What’s going to happen to these people?” he said.

The authority now will begin seeking bids from ambulance companies for contracts with each city, which will include the new fee. The contracts are expected to be signed before next June.