News

By Jane Smith
    
    Starting Oct. 1, residents in Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes will pay more for an ambulance ride provided by Boynton Beach Fire Rescue.
    For a basic ambulance ride, the transport fee will increase by nearly 75 percent to $610, and the mileage rate will increase by 50 percent to $12 a mile.
    Intermediate life support rides also will rise to $610, up 43.5 percent, and the most advanced support will increase to $770, or 33.9 percent.
    The increase will raise $200,000 for the upcoming budget year that is still tight for Boynton Beach.
    “The new rates are identical to the rates Palm Beach County has adopted that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2015,” Boynton Beach Fire Rescue Chief Ray Carter told city commissioners in early August.
    City commissioners peppered him with questions, such as would the increase prevent someone who needs a ride to the hospital from going in an ambulance.
    “Absolutely not,” Carter said. The department is trying to update its rates, which have been in place since 2007, he said. He assured the commissioners that the city’s  increased rates would not be at the top or the bottom of the county but in the middle compared with other fire rescue departments.
    “The point here is to capture the revenue from secondary insurers,” Carter said. “They are willing to pay these amounts. Everyone else is collecting them. We felt it was time to get in line with that.”
    No members of the public spoke on the issue at both hearings. City commissioners passed it unanimously twice.
    Delray Beach charges $650 for a basic ambulance ride; that same transport costs $750 in Boca Raton.
    Boynton Beach’s increase also applies to people using the St. Andrews Club and residents in the county pocket between Briny Breezes and Gulf Stream, areas served by the Boynton Beach Fire Rescue department.
    Ken Schenk, Ocean Ridge town manager, said his residents should be able to pay the increase because they have health insurance.
    “It’s not cheap,” he said, “but it sure beats the alternative.”