Kennewick council reviews options to raise ambulance transport and mileage rates

Interim Fire Chief Michael Heffner presented data and options to the Kennewick City Council on Sept. 23 for revising the city's ground ambulance transport and mileage rates, saying the last resolution-setting the flat transport rate was adopted in 2012 and mileage was set in 2005. Staff will bring proposed ordinances and updated fiscal projections to the council on Oct. 7, 2025.

Heffner told the workshop that the city currently charges a flat resident transport rate of $660 and a long-standing nonresident rate set 50% higher at $990; mileage has been billed at $10 per mile since 2005. "The last time the rate was evaluated and changed by resolution was in 2012," Heffner said, noting the city bills mileage to the tenth of a mile and that Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rules affect what the city can collect.

Why it matters: Heffner said roughly 60% of the city's transported patients are covered by Medicare and that Medicare's allowable reimbursement for certain high-level transports now exceeds the city's flat transport charge. The city currently supplements ambulance costs with an ambulance utility rate, state GEMT (ground emergency medical transport) reimbursements and general-fund support; Heffner said the general fund presently covers remaining shortfalls.

Key numbers and payer mix: Heffner presented the following figures from city billing and state files: an average cost per transport in state fiscal 2024 of about $3,000; in 2024 the city billed $6,692,763 for ambulance services and…