Tulsa City Council turns down EMSA's request to raise transport fee from $1,300 for an ambulance ride to $1,700 at a council meeting Wednesday night.
EMSA, a public trust authority of the City of Tulsa and City of Oklahoma City, says its entity is not a for-profit organization, that costs are shared by the Oklahoma City metro areas contributing 53% and Tulsa metro area contributing 47% to annual budgets. EMSA's Board of Trustees recommended a rate increase of $400 (to $1,700 for the Eastern Division starting the fiscal year of 2018) to maintain the high level of service expected by Tulsa-area residents.
The council denied the request and now EMSA says it will have to find ways to come up with $2.4 million in a shortfall needed to meet their budgetary needs.
The rate increase, EMSA says, would not have affected 80 percent of Tulsa’s population. Under the plan for the increase, the fee citizens pay to be a member of EMSAcare would not have increased. EMSAcare members make up 80 percent of Tulsa’s population.
The last emergency transportation fee increase was in 2012. The fee structure is typically re-evaluated every four to five years depending on the budgetary needs of the divisions.
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