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Burleson council approves addendum for third‑party fire billing, staff cites safeguards
Summary
Council approved an addendum to its Emergicon contract to add Emergifyre/EmergeFire third‑party billing for fire and non‑EMS responses; staff estimated potential net collections and emphasized policies to direct billing to insurers and to prohibit credit‑reporting collections.
The Burleson City Council approved a contract addendum Sept. 2 allowing the city to use a subcontractor to pursue insurance reimbursements for fire and other non‑EMS emergency responses.
Fire Chief Casey Davis told the council the city’s current ambulance billing arrangement with Emergicon could be expanded by adding Emergifyre/EmergeFire to identify and submit eligible claims to insurers. Chief Davis said the vendor’s fee would be 15% of revenues collected, plus up to 2% for credit‑card fees, and that the addendum would run concurrently with the existing contract through December 2026.
On collection expectations, Chief Davis said staff identified roughly 518 potentially billable fire responses last year and estimated about 300 of those cases could yield payments; staff presented a preliminary annual net revenue estimate of about $145,000 after vendor fees. He and staff acknowledged that fire‑billing revenue is less predictable than EMS billing and stressed there are no formal case studies isolating the effect of fire billing on insurance premiums.
Council members pressed staff about consumer protections. Chief Davis said Emergicon and the subcontractor do not themselves perform third‑party collections that report to credit agencies; any hard‑collection activity would require a separate contract. The proposed billing policy presented to council directs staff to bill the responsible party’s insurer where appropriate, allows direct billing to businesses that request it, creates an exception process for extraordinary hazmat or cleanup incidents, and states the city will not use collection methods that report unpaid balances to credit reporting agencies.
Council approved three related items on first reading: the agreement addendum to add fire‑billing services, an ordinance establishing mitigation rates for emergency and nonemergency services, and a resolution adopting the city’s emergency‑service billing policy. Each motion passed unanimously.
What’s next: If council finalizes the addendum at the next meeting, onboarding would begin and staff targeted a go‑live date of Jan. 26, 2026; communications staff will provide FAQs and public information to explain the program.
