The Gazette-Enterprise

Guadalupe County residents served by Schertz EMS will be offered the opportunity to save money when the ambulance comes under a membership plan approved by county commissioners Tuesday.

Schertz EMS Director Dudley Wait presented the membership plan in which residents of the county who live in the service areas of Schertz EMS would be offered the opportunity to purchase annual memberships for between $50 and $75 that would reduce the cost of EMS service, should they or a member of their family need it.

When EMS is dispatched to a 9-1-1 medical emergency, an average call costs about $1,000, Wait said, which is billed to the person who uses the service or to their insurance company or to both.

In exchange for the annual cost of the membership, Schertz EMS would bill only the insurance company, and waive the user’s co-pay or up to 40 percent of the cost if uninsured or if the customer’s insurance company deems the services not medically necessary.

Medicaid recipients would not be allowed to join the program and wouldn’t need it anyway, Wait said. They have no co-pays. The membership also cannot be applied toward non-emergency services.

Schertz EMS estimates the program would enable it to raise about $100,000 in its first year, which would be used to help pay costs related to training, equipment or operations.

To establish the program, Wait said he needed approval of the county judges and mayors in his agency’s 225-square mile service area that includes parts of Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe counties.

In Guadalupe County, Schertz EMS serves Schertz, Cibolo, Marion, Santa Clara and the Interstate 35 corridor to New Braunfels. It also contracts for services in other parts of the county with Seguin and Luling EMS. Wait said he would mail membership offers to everyone in the service area and advertise the program in local news media.

The membership program’s roots reach back to the days when rural volunteer fire departments supported themselves through subscription plans.

“If you’d bought a subscription to the volunteer fire department and had a fire, they’d come put it out,” he told commissioners.

Those plans fell out of favor because of the potential for abuse.

“They changed over the years because of negative perceptions,” Wait told commissioners.

Under the program Schertz EMS hopes to launch next month, paramedics and first responders would not know who was and who wasn’t a member in their response area, Wait said.

“That’s all taken care of in billing,” he said.

While the membership plan isn’t insurance, Wait stressed, it did afford members an opportunity to help manage their costs should they ever require EMS service and even avoid out-of-pocket expenses.

“Nobody has ever planned to call 9-1-1,” Wait said.

What it does for Schertz EMS is provides a source of cash up front — and Wait hopes it will increase collections by reducing costs to those who use EMS services.

“A lot of times we aren’t the only bill these people have to look at,” Wait said. “I believe it could increase collections and benefit those who plan ahead.”

The membership would not apply to expenses associated with aeromedical helicopter transportation, Wait said, although he added the AirLife air rescue service that serves Guadalupe County is considering a similar program.

Wait said he hoped to roll the program out in December, and the first year would close the membership window after a couple of months so Schertz EMS could learn how much administrative work would be required to support the program.

Much of Precinct 4 Commissioner Judy Cope’s precinct is served by Schertz EMS or one of its subcontractors, and Cope said she thought the memberships would be a good idea.

“It sounds like something possibly a lot of people can use,” she said in making the motion for approval.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Roger Baenziger seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

For more information go http://www.schertz.com/ems_index.html or call 210-619-1400.

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