(A) The West Alexandria Village Council notes the following facts.
(1) The Village of West Alexandria has no hospitals within its jurisdiction, and that if its citizens need this health service on an emergency basis that a village emergency ambulance service is a necessary component in transporting citizens with emergency medical needs to hospitals or other medical facilities.
(2) The Village of West Alexandria periodically enters into contracts with neighboring townships and/or other political entities to provide emergency ambulance services to persons within other jurisdictions.
(3) Township Trustees have the direct power to charge for the use of emergency ambulance services within their townships under R.C. § 505.84.
(4) Providing emergency ambulance services is an expensive endeavor that historically has driven private carriers away from providing the services to rural areas.
(B) The Village of West Alexandria herein establishes and shall charge a fee for users of the West Alexandria Emergency Ambulance Service. The fee shall be no less than the “authorized medicare reimbursement rate” as established for the locality under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, 49 Stat. 620 (1935), 42 U.S.C. §§ 301, as amended, and shall equal the usual and customary rate for like and similar services.
(C) The Village of West Alexandria may periodically enter into contracts with a private agent(s) for purposes of billing, processing, collecting and otherwise handling the fees, charges and user accounts. The private agent(s) are to be compensated solely from fees collected.
(D) The Village of West Alexandria may require other political entities contractually served by the West Alexandria Emergency Ambulance Service to establish and charge the fee prescribed by division (B) of this section for services rendered within their jurisdiction, and may further require the use of the same private agent(s) used by West Alexandria under and pursuant to the terms of division (C) of this section. Moneys so collected shall be deposited as required by law and divided per agreement between the political entities contractually served and the Village of West Alexandria. Moneys received by West Alexandria under this division (D) shall be in addition to and separate from regular moneys received by contract with other political entities.
(E) The fee charged to users of the West Alexandria Emergency Ambulance Service shall be assessed and billed to the user, irrespective of the life or death of the user, the removal or non-removal of the user, or who initiated the call for the services. Anyone aggrieved of a bill they dispute may appeal to the Village Council within 30 days of receiving their bill, and for good cause, the Village Council may void the bill.
(Prior Code, § 241.03) (Ord. 670, passed 12-4-2000; Ord. 685, passed 3-4-2002)