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San Jose leaders approve $427 fee for first responder calls

San Jose leaders approve $427 fee for first responder calls
San Jose leaders approve $427 fee for first responder calls 03:19

The City of San Jose will soon start billing residents for calling 911. It's called a "first responder fee" and would be charged when someone needs medical attention from the fire department.

At Tuesday's council meeting, members voted unanimously to move forward with a charge of $427 per medical call to help recoup some of the cost of the medical treatment provided by firefighters.

San Jose firefighters respond to about 68,000 calls for medical emergencies each year, which averages out to about 186 calls per day. Every fire truck in the city is staffed with a paramedic, like Captain Joshua Scheib.

"There's more fire stations strategically placed around the city than there are ambulances and ambulances are always roaming around. They don't have a station like how we have," Scheib told CBS News Bay Area.

That means a paramedic from the fire department can get to a patient more quickly and start life-saving care.

"This is going to be the paramedic's tool box. It's going to have all the medications," Scheib said as he pulls out an IV bag.

Every fire truck has a full set of gear for the paramedic on board - a total of 47 equipped rigs across the city. Once the cost is added up, it becomes significant.

Right now, the money to pay for all the supplies comes out of the fire department's budget.

"We looked at ourselves as a fire department that helped out on medical calls, but we are recognizing now we are a medical care provider," said San Jose Fire Chief Robert Sapien.

That's why Sapien went before the City Council to ask to move forward with a plan to charge $427 for every medical call.

"We will bill insurance but we're not going after individual residents to collect the fees," said Mayor Matt Mahan.

The mayor and the other council members unanimously approved the plan, but only after a guarantee that residents won't be sent to collections for unpaid fees and there wouldn't be any impact to credit scores.

"Firefighters are responding and providing medical care, I think it can be appropriate to recoup some of those costs. That's a way to keep the fire department sustainable without having to raise taxes. But really that should be coming out of an insurance pool, not something where we are sending a bill directly to residents," Mahan told CBS News Bay Area.

San Francisco, Napa, Vallejo and the city of Alameda all charge some kind of first responder fee when their respective fire departments provide medical care to patients. Compared to other Bay Area cities, San Jose's fee would be higher than Napa's ($338) and Alameda's ($393), but lower than Vallejo and San Francisco ($561 and $567, respectively).

The details of the plan are expected to be hammered out this summer, and the charge won't start until January 1, 2026. It's expected to generate about $4 million per year.

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