Billing for rescue services ?

[9THBATTALION]

Does your department bill for rescue services such as
extrication, SCUBA, trench, confined space, or building collapse rescue?
Haz-mat billing is common place, but what about rescue services?
I feel that special rescue and haz-mat share some common traits: specialized training and equipment, long duration scene operations, and the need for replacement materials.
If you do bill, is it part of your EMS billing (if you provide EMS)?
Will insurance companies pay for this?
If your agency, or an agency you know bills for special rescue services, please share your experience or billing fees.
I am researching this for my department.

Thanks

[Weruj1]

We hated to begin to bill for EMS transports.........but ...and thats all we bill for, not until I got on the forums did I even know it existed, and I hope we dont begin to bill for stuff like that.

[Armyfirerescue]

My department back home does no EMS, but we do vehicle rescue and specialized rescues such as water, high angle, etc. We do not bill for anything. There are a couple of squads that do their own extrications, and I believe they bill for it, but I'm not positive. I know I didn't really help much, but figured I'd put my two cents in.

[DFCSmash]

Up here legislation provides that if your FD is funded by property taxes, you cannot bill for fire and rescue services, as the taxpayer has already been paying for the service. The exception is provincial highways and roads, and persons who do not reside within the municipality, travelling on municipal roads. These areas pay no taxes, so charges may be levied. We used to charge $500/hr for a pumper, $300/hr for a rescue unit and $10/hr per firefighter. MPIC, the only insurance company in the province (govt owned and run) was getting gouged by a couple of depts in the province ie 1500/hr for each unit, 20/hr each firefighter and they rolled everything in the hall to each and every highway call and charged for their full crew of 40. So MPIC now pays a flat rate of $362.75 ($350 plus some recent govt adjustment for inflation)or thereabouts for all vehicle calls regardless of the simplicity or complexity. You can ask for extra billing for extreme cases, extra materials , long durations, etc. but you may or (more likely) may not get it. We have been charging for extrications and vehicle fires since about 1975.

[FyredUp]

In Wisconsin you can bill insurance companies for incidents on the highway involving vehicle accidents or fires. There is also a procedure for billing the state for incidents on state highways.

We have not started doing this yet but may in the future.

FyredUp