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OC Ambulance Rates To Rise

pixabay.com

The Oneida County board has approved increased ambulance fees.

It costs about $960,000 to operated the county ambulance service each year. Ken Kortenhof, who oversees the service says the are increasing the rates to meet rising expenditures and to keep pace with other services...

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"....we're trying to find a balance between what we tax the people and what we charge for the patients..."

Kortenhof says payments from Medicare and Medicaid have not been keeping up with costs so the additional fees charged to the patients would help offset the loss. Kortenhof says with the higher rates, he projects an additional $40,000 in revenue, lowering the amount of tax money needed to run the service by a similar amount.

The city of Rhinelander operates its own ambulance service. Oneida county has ambulances in six county locations. In 2014, they made 2,376 runs for service.

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