The Houghton Volunteer Fire Department has recently begun charging a fee for ambulance rides to the hospital.
The fee comes as a result of decreasing financial support from the community and increasing cost burden on the department.
Over the past several years, the executive board of the department has been looking for ways to mitigate the costs involved with keeping an ambulance service up and running. The President and Ambulance Captain of the department, Mae Stadelmaier, said,“In order to provide the community with the proper standard of care, some form of billing needed to be implemented in order to cover the costs of the ambulance.” This is a move that reflects trends seen in other rural emergency service providers throughout the country. The board views this step as the only realistic and viable option to keep the ambulance service running in Houghton.
Beyond community donations, the department supports itself by holding fundraisers. These include a community yard sale, biannually, on Memorial and Labor Day weekends where the department charges $8 to vendors coming to sell their old things and hosts a community barbecue. It also holds an annual community dinner in the Houghton Wesleyan Church and sells Study Buddy Packs to Houghton students during finals week.
In spite of these fundraising efforts, there is still a deficit of income for the department. In the words of Captain Stadelmaier,“The costs of running an ambulance are a lot higher than many realize. The basic supplies needed to stock the ambulance are ridiculously expensive, not to mention the cost of the ambulance itself, as well as the maintenance, insurance, fuel, certifications, etc. The money we receive from donations and fundraisers has been decreasing over the years. We also don’t receive money from the tax payers for the ambulance as the ambulance is self-supported.”
The department worked to set the rates for the rides as low as they can be in order to lessen the impact on patients’ health insurances. The average price for a ride depends on the type of call and the level of care provided. Each ride to the hospital requires at least 3 volunteers, a driver and two EMTs, and 2 to 3 hours of work. Ultimately, the fee charged to the patient would include the costs of gas, medical equipment, and various other costs the department deals with, such as vehicle maintenance, which amounts to at least a few hundred dollars.
What complicates matters is that the cost of a ride to the hospital cannot be billed to an insurance company directly by the department. The bill that was formerly sent to the patient, from the medic, now gets included in the department’s bill. Then, the price that the patient pays is based on what their health insurance will cover.
There are also many costs that the department is preparing to pay for in the near future. “We need to be looking at replacing our ambulance in the next year or so, which is around $160,000 – $200,000, and with new state mandates will be getting a cardiac monitor, which can be up to $40,000. It is unlikely that donations and fundraisers alone will raise enough money to accomplish these tasks.”, says Captain Stadelmaier.
As the department faces such economic troubles, it is important to remember that it is part of a great community effort that goes beyond fees and bills. In the words of Kelsey Hancock, a Senior EMT volunteer, “We, the Houghton Volunteer Ambulance Service, are your classmates, your neighbors and your friends. We can’t do this alone; we need your support. We need more community members to join as EMTs to fill the gaps when students aren’t in Houghton. We need your participation in the fundraisers like the Spaghetti Dinner coming up on April 4th. And we need your encouragement and prayers. Our work can be tense, thankless and disheartening.”
Hancock concluded with gratitude toward the community of Houghton; she said “A simple word or note, or even praying when the siren sounds helps us to fight off exhaustion, discouragement and burn out. Thank you for caring about us and encouraging us. It makes a huge difference during our long hours of work.”