Controlling Costs For Health Care

Ever wonder just why health care costs are increasing at such an alarming rate in the United States? Part of the answer may be: because they can.

That is not as flippant an analysis as it may appear at first glance. Health Care An illustration of why the ability of health care providers to charge more sometimes prompts them to do just that is being provided by Wheeling City Council.

Council members are considering an increase in the fee charged for use of ambulance service provided by the Wheeling Fire Department. An ordinance to increase the fee, now $200 for most ambulance trips, to $279.89 has been approved on first reading.

Why an increase of $79.89? Vice Mayor Mike Nau answered the question during a council meeting this week: “That is the amount that Medicare allows us to collect, so this is what we passed during a recent finance committee meeting,” he told a member of the public.

During a previous meeting, Councilman Brent Bush noted that fire department officials had sought an even larger increase, of $125.

And it has been noted, not everyone will have to pay the full $279.89 if council approves the new rate. The city manager has the authority to approve lesser payments in hardship cases.

There are not expected to be many of those, because most city residents are covered by some type of insurance, including Medicare.

We realize that the cost of providing any service increases. Ambulances, after all, run on the same gasoline for which nearly all of us are paying more. But the decision to set the increase at precisely the amount for which Medicare will pay makes us wonder whether a careful cost analysis has been performed. Is the new rate to be $279.89 because that much is needed to pay for city ambulance service? Or is the rate being set there because, well, city officials can charge that much?

Before City Council finalizes the new rate, questions about the cost to the city of ambulance service need to be asked and answered. If the full $79.89 increase is needed, it certainly ought to be approved. But if every health care provider sets rates according to the maximum reimbursements from insurance companies and agencies, health care costs will never, ever be brought under control.