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Hospitals request work group, transparency on proposed EMS designation fee increases
Summary
Hospital systems including Kaiser, Stanford and El Camino asked the board to release the EMS fee study and form a work group to review a proposed jump in hospital EMS designation fees; county staff said the fee itself still requires a separate board hearing and study.
Several hospital systems and health-care associations asked supervisors Monday for a collaborative review of a proposed increase in emergency-medical-services (EMS) hospital-designation fees.
Representatives from Kaiser Permanente, Stanford Healthcare, El Camino Health, the Hospital Council and other hospital systems said they had not seen the detailed fee study underlying the recommended revenue and asked the county to convene a work group so hospitals could review the methodology and identify potential efficiencies. They raised concerns that some proposed designation fees would increase severalfold and asked for time to study how the changes were calculated and how hospitals might reduce or manage costs.
County staff said the fee study underpinning any regulatory fee must be presented before a separate board action to adopt the fee and that the current budget action reflects an anticipated revenue recognition rather than adoption of the charge itself. James Williams said the county would make staff available to meet with hospital leaders and encouraged the Hospital Council to provide data showing an inability to absorb the fee if they have it.
Hospital leaders and county staff agreed to pursue a work group and additional transparency so the parties can examine the fee study and its assumptions before the county adopts any fee schedule.
