Boulder doubles ambulance fees to get out of red

To balance its troubled emergency care budget, Boulder’s City Council on Monday approved a near-doubling of its rates for ambulance services, putting the cost in line with state averages.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve raised ambulance rates, and we’ve fallen significantly behind,” City Council President Drew Dawson said at the July 21 meeting, introducing the rate proposal. In fact, no one seems certain when the rates last changed; Boulder Ambulance Service Director Molly Carey said they haven’t budged since she joined the service 15 years ago.

In June, the City asked Pintler Billing Services, which now provides billing services to BAS, to survey charges at comparable ambulance services across Montana. The results were “pretty eye-opening,” Carey said.