Hanover Park approves $480,046 ambulance purchase; trustees discuss resident billing

The Village of Hanover Park Board on June 5 authorized a purchase order to Foster Coach Sales Inc. for a 2027 Ford ambulance in an amount not to exceed $480,046 and approved a $100,000 prepayment to secure pricing.

A trustee who identified himself on the record as Herb raised concerns about charging residents for ambulance transport after taxpayer dollars pay for equipment. Herb said, “I'm a little uneasy when I turn around and tell our residents… we're gonna charge you a fee to use this that your tax dollars paid for.”

Hanover Park’s fire leadership told the board ambulance fees have been billed since the village assumed the fire department and are tiered by level of service (BLS, ALS‑1, ALS‑2, non‑transport). The fire chief (identified on the record as the chief) said the department bills insurance companies and that Medicare and Medicaid limits apply for those beneficiaries. The chief added the village participates in a program (GENT) to help supplement Medicaid reimbursement shortfalls.

The chief also said the village has not raised its ambulance rates recently and that staff plan to include a review of ambulance rates and billing practices in the upcoming strategic plan. He noted one direction under study is reducing or eliminating balance billing for residents whose insurance does not fully cover billed charges.

Why this matters: the equipment purchase is capital outlay funded from the village budget, and billing practice changes could affect residents who are balance‑billed for services not covered by their insurer. Trustees praised the fire department’s procurement planning for securing pricing in advance but also pressed staff to consider the equity and affordability implications of billing policy.

Next steps: finance and fire staff will incorporate ambulance fee review into the strategic‑plan work and return recommendations to the board; procurement will proceed to execute the purchase order.