These price tags are enough to make you sick.
The FDNY is considering hiking ambulance and emergency medical bills by double digits — blaming the squeeze on patients’ pockets on inflation and coming pay increases for union workers.
The proposed hikes could send an ambulance ride through the 911 system soaring 29%, while “treatment in place” services would balloon an eye-watering 42%.
“The Fire Department is proposing this rule because of increased costs and to help offset the City’s cost of providing these services,” the FDNY said in a statement proposing the increase.
“The proposed rates reflect increases in personal services costs and other than personal service costs required to provide emergency ambulance services and have been calculated to reduce the portion of such costs that is currently borne by City taxpayers.”
The labor contract for EMS workers is expired and raises are expected under any new contract. It’s be the first increase in medical transport fees and services was imposed in May 2023.
The cost of a normal or a “basic life support” ambulance ride would spike from $1,385 to $1,793 under the change, while “treatment in place” service provided by ambulance medics would jump from $630 to $896.
Fees for advanced life support service Levels 1 and 2 would increase by 30.7%.
Level 1 life support trips would increase from $1,680 to $2,196 and Level 2 would surge from $1,692 to $2,012.
The charge per mile for the trip to the hospital will remain at its current $20.
Administering oxygen costs $66.
There is no settled labor contract between the FDNY and EMTs and paramedics, but the deparment is calculating an increase in labor costs based on the collective bargaining agreements or “pattern” set with the unions representing other city workers.
“The rates do not necessarily reflect the amounts accepted by the Fire Department as payment for ambulance treatment and transport services from government and private health insurance plans,” the department said.
The unions representing ambulance workers and supervisors released a statement slamming a wage gap, where EMS workers are paid less than firefighters and other uniformed first responders, which contributes to a staffing crisis and longer response times.
“The City may be increasing what it charges for ambulance service, but unless it addresses the massive pay disparities for EMTs and paramedics — who are mostly Black, Hispanic, and women — it won’t have enough trained medical personnel to operate or provide emergency care on those ambulances,” union leaders Oren Barzilay and Vincent Variale said in a statement.
Barzilay is president of Local 2507, which represents EMTs, paramedics and inspectors while Variale heads Local 621 of the Uniformed Emergency Medical Service Officers Union.
“Outrageous pay disparities are forcing EMS workers to leave the service because they simply cannot survive on their current pay,” they said in the statement. “1,500 medical first responders – 37% of the workforce – are projected to quit the service in 2026. And because EMS is hemorrhaging personnel, response times are up.
“The entire emergency response system is pushed to the edge, and New York City is facing a literal life-and-death crisis as a result.”
The union leaders said they are hoping Mayor Zohran Mamdani will address the pay disparity for EMS compared to other city workers.
A public hearing on the proposed increase in ambulance fees will take place on May 15.
