North Pole raises resident ambulance discount to 25% for calls inside city limits

The North Pole City Council voted 7-0 Monday to raise the discount city residents can get on ambulance and emergency medical service charges from up to 10 percent to up to 25 percent. The larger discount applies only when a city ambulance picks up a resident inside city limits.

The change is meant to keep North Pole residents from paying more after the council raised the city's ambulance fee from $1,100 to $1,300 last month. With the full discount, a resident would pay $975 on that fee, compared with $990 before. The ordinance says adjusting the discount "keeps the current ambulance fees the same for North Pole City residents." Council member Santa Claus, who introduced it in October, said it leaves city residents' charges essentially where they are while fees rise elsewhere in the borough. "So we're basically not going along with the rest of the borough's increase," Claus said.

Fire Chief Chad Heineken said his department takes no position on the discount and that residents inside the city would not see an increase if they needed an ambulance. When the department ran the numbers for one year, he said, it documented eight cash payers, patients who pay out of pocket, and collected nothing from any of them. "So it would have very, very little effect on, on the revenue side is what I believe," Heineken said.

Council member Aubrey Barnett asked whether the discount was legally sound, pointing to the city attorney's warning that the local bidder preference the council adopted in October was likely unconstitutional. The council was told the attorney saw no issue with raising a discount the code already allowed.

Heineken said the discount would apply only to residents picked up in the city. If a resident is picked up outside city limits, as in his example of someone visiting their mother on Badger Road, the Fairbanks North Star Borough bills the call, even when a city ambulance responds under the city's contract with the borough. The borough would have to grant any discount, which he said would probably be difficult. Mayor Larry Terch noted the ordinance didn't say where a resident had to be picked up, and the council added "within city limits" before the final vote.

Residents may have to prove where they live. Council member Sandra Rolfe said that after she was taken by ambulance, the discount didn't apply until she answered a letter from the fire department, which she did by showing her driver's license with her home address. She said she had about 30 days to do it.