After receiving the green light to start billing for services from volunteer fire departments, Henry County Public Safety Director Matt Tatum says the change won’t directly impact residents.
Tatum discussed the pending billing program with county supervisors, who voted unanimously to support the program during their Tuesday evening regular session. While the county rules allow for the Department of Public Safety to establish a billing program, Tatum said it has not done so up until now.
“All the funds collected would go to the volunteer fire departments,” Tatum said. On calls with multiple agencies responding, billing would only be applicable to the primary responding agency, he said.
Tatum said possible earnings are difficult to project.
“This is really hard to calculate with accuracy due to the varying call volumes but based on what some other departments are reporting, I estimate we will average about $5,000 per department per year in recovery,” Tatum said. “Some will obviously be higher and some will be less as it really depends on the number of responses required of the department.”
The billing program would be based on what Tatum and Henry County fire officials refer to as a “compassionate billing policy,” which directs charges to insurance companies instead of the affected building owner. Tatum said it’s a similar system used by Henry County EMS.
“I can’t speak on behalf of the norm for other areas, but Henry County has always practiced this model with their EMS billing and it was felt the same model should be used for fire,” Tatum said. “Unfortunately, when someone calls for assistance during an emergency, they are already in a very bad situation. The county does not want to add to that situation by passing on a bill to the citizen.”
If insurance covers only part of the bill, or none at all, fire departments will not require building owners to pay the difference.
“The intent of the program is to collect those funds of which citizens are already paying for through their insurance premiums while not creating an additional burden to the citizen,” he said.
Supervisor Pam Cobler echoed Tatum, saying the county already allows for the establishment of such a fee schedule.
“It’s already there,” Cobler said. “It’s not like it’s going to be something additional that people are going to have to pay on their insurance policies.”
In a memorandum to supervisors, Tatum detailed what the fee schedule might look like. He said the fees are based on national standards with consideration for local economic conditions.
The fees are categorized into several sections, including fires, hazmat situations, water rescues, vehicular situations, wilderness or special rescue, and miscellaneous incidents that require the presence of fire departments.
Tatum wrote in his memo that regular fires will likely be the majority of billings.
The schedule bills a regular fire at $568 per hour per vehicle, or $711 per hour per truck. Some of the lesser-used services, like hazmat-related incidents, range from $999 to $8,420. Difficult-to-bill incidents, such as wilderness-related rescues, have a fee of $583 plus an additional $70 per hour.
Tatum notes in the memo that insurance companies might not adhere to the billing schedule.
“If the insurance denies the claim or there is no insurance, the bill will be written off as uncollectable,” Tatum wrote.
At the meeting, Tatum mentioned the possibility of having a third-party vendor handle the billing process.
