A bill inspired by a local firefighter could allow volunteer fire departments to bill for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) they provide. Recently signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, HB 852 was proposed by Del. Wren Williams, R-Stuart, and inspired by a conversation Williams had with Patrick Springs Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief Clint Weidhaas.
During a conversation with Williams about a year ago, Weidhaas said the difficulty to obtain funds as a fire department was discussed.
Williams said, “well, what about when you run these calls?’ And I was like, ‘well, we can bill on fire calls, sometimes, and it’s a hit or miss whether insurance companies are going to pay us or not. It’s a big hit or miss,’” Weidhaas said, adding that Williams asked about the EMS calls some departments run as first responders.
Weidhaas explained the department could not bill for those services because “rescue squad bills for it because they’re the primary transport agency.”
Weidhaas noted Williams then said fire departments should be able to bill at least for the services provided. After the conversation a year ago, Weidhaas said he didn’t talk to Williams about the issue. In the meantime, Williams drafted and got the bill passed, which Weidhaas found out about two months ago.
While the bill has potential, Weidhaas said he’s unsure if fire departments will be able to access this so far untapped revenue stream any time soon.
First, the Patrick County Board of Supervisors has to approve an ordinance allowing local volunteer fire departments to bill for EMS services.
“I don’t think that has been discussed yet with them. I don’t think it’s been brought up in a meeting yet. I don’t think” EMS Director Scottie Cassell’s “brought it up yet. I told Wren last time I saw him I was worried about that.”
Noting that at least three of the five supervisors must approve the ordinance, Weidhaas said Williams told him he would work on it.
“I’m not sure if Wren’s put any more work into that at our local level. He kind of said that he was, but I haven’t talked to him in like two months now,” Weidhaas said.
Doug Perry, interim chairman, and of the Smith River District, said he would support a proposed ordinance providing it calls for soft billing.
“I’m strongly against hard billing,” Perry said.
Jane Fulk, interim of the Dan River District, said she also has no issue with volunteer fire departments soft billing.
“In hard billing, you’re allowed to put a judgment against the people, and a lot of people in Patrick County are elderly. I would say the majority have home insurance, and I don’t have a problem with a fire department billing their home insurance and taking what the insurance will pay. I’m a little leery about hard billing,” she said.
Steve Marshall, of the Blue Ridge District, said it seems to him that if volunteer squads could soft bill, it would help “the county taxes out, that would help the squads out. It certainly wouldn’t hurt the residents because if they’re better funded you get better service. They want to do a lot, but if the funding’s not there they can’t. So yeah, I think it would be a good idea,” he said.
Clayton Kendrick, of the Mayo River District, said he didn’t see a problem with it.
“Sounds like a good idea to me. I wouldn’t have a problem supporting it for my part of the county. Most of that billing, most of the time the insurance or Medicare or whatever, will take care of it anyway, it’s not like somebody’s having a hardship and having to pay it out of their pocket,” Kendrick said.
Jonathan Wood, of the Peters Creek District, said he believes it’s a great option, especially for smaller localities and stations that might have trouble funding their operations.
“It all might serve as sort of a preventative for people that burn trash that let it get out, and things like that. They’ll become more responsible for these fires that can get out and cause a problem in our community,” he said.
Wood said he likes the fact it would be soft billing so it would be the insurance companies that would be paying it and not the residents. Additionally, “it wouldn’t be any different than other EMS and other medical facilities billing for what they do.”
Another potential issue are concerns raised by Cassell about the fire department’s ability to bill for service given that Medicaid and Medicare only pay for transported services.
“If that’s the case, then the state can pass the bill that fire departments can bill, but the insurance companies don’t have to pay it. That’s how I interpreted that from Scottie. So, it burst my bubble a little bit,” Weidhaas said, adding that neither he nor Williams are aware of any fire departments that bill for EMS services yet in Virginia.
“Of course, they couldn’t until now, but it’s almost like we’re going to have to go out of state and try to contact a department somewhere” to learn how to do this, Weidhaas said.
Weidhaas said the Patrick Springs VFD has also been talking about potentially starting a first responder program to help the community which struggles with a lack of EMS services.
“Patrick Springs Fire Department is aligning ourselves to provide that service,” Weidhaas said. “It takes a good bit of time to get certified and licensed to run as a first responder agency, and then you have to buy the equipment and the equipment costs money.”
Upfront costs include $8,000 to $10,000 for equipment, with the biggest part of the cost being the Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) which are required to be on trucks that run Basic Life Support (BLS) first responder.
“We started the process through the county to get certified to run as first responders, but there’s six of us at Patrick Springs Fire Departments that are certified EMTs, and you have to have a certain number of on the department to even get licensed,” he said.
While he believes Patrick Springs has already met this number, Weidhaas said he is unsure.
“We’ve been looking into that, and we have 15 personnel at Patrick Springs that have openly committed and expressed, ‘hey, I want to get the first responder certification,’ which is like a 40-hour class,” he said, adding the next problem is getting the training.
Weidhaas said he’s reached out to Cassell, who said he is able to train the interested volunteer fire departments but will need to create a schedule.
