Longwood offers ambulance club

Longwood offers ambulance club

Pennsbury Township residents will soon be getting a letter from the Longwood Fire Co. regarding a new ambulance subscription service designed to reduce ambulance costs to members.

Tammy Whiteman of the fire company made a brief presentation about the service during the June 20 meeting of the Pennsbury Board of Supervisors.

Whiteman said the idea is to get people to pay an annual fee for ambulance service — $50 for an individual and $100 for a household. In exchange, she said, “You’ll never see a bill from us.”

She explained that the actual cost for an ambulance trip can be as much as $1,200 with many people getting bills for $50 to $200 or more after insurance. She added that the service is only for residents with insurance. Those without can’t participate, she said.

According to a copy of the letter presented at the meeting, Longwood would charge the insurance company and the subscriber would not be billed for what the insurance declines to pay other than a deductible or co-pay.

In addition, the letter said, “When a patient’s deductible is greater than the total cost of the ambulance bill, the patient would pay.”

Whiteman said the subscription fee can be a tax write off if there’s no ambulance service used during that year.

She said the service is being offered because of insurance companies and Medicare changing the way they reimburse ambulance companies.

The ambulance club is being offered to all residents in Longwood’s basic life support coverage area.

Other business

• Township manager Kathy Howley said the township is preparing a letter to send to the Chester County commissioners to oppose a suggested $5.20 tax per person to fund the 911 and other emergency services. Howley said many townships oppose the tax.

• Supervisors approved an amendment to the township’s Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance. The amendment changes the fee in lieu of open space requirement from all subdivisions to only major subdivisions, those of more than three lots.

• Supervisors’ Vice Chairman Charles “Scotty” Scottoline said there’s been no decision yet on the fate of the Hope House. He said Pennsbury Village Associates developer Tim Filler has agreed to extend the date for a decision until the end of the year. As part of the approval for the PVA development, which uses township property, Filler offered to move the house to another location if the supervisors so chose.

--By Rich Schwartzman

About CFLive Staff

See Contributors Page https://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

Comments

comments

Leave a Reply