Medical facilities in Flower Mound could face charges of up to $1,500 for requesting certain services from the town’s fire department under a new fee schedule that took effect Oct. 1.
The Flower Mound Town Council approved a $500 lift-assist fee and a $1,500 nonemergency medical transport fee during its Sept. 21 meeting as part of the largest fee adjustment in town history.
Flower Mound Chief Financial Officer John Zagurski said the new fees apply only to medical facilities, not private residents. Fire Department spokesperson Brandon Barth and EMS Chief Robert Adcock confirmed that distinction.
The $500 lift-assist fee will be charged to medical facilities that request assistance from Flower Mound emergency personnel to help patients who have fallen or need help getting up but show no signs of injury.
The fee is intended to encourage medical facilities to handle routine patient assistance with their own staff rather than relying on the town’s emergency personnel for services the facilities are expected to provide.
“We have a number of senior living facilities within town,” Zagurski said. “This will allow us to charge fees anytime we’re called for non-emergency purposes – basically taking emergency personnel away from bigger responses.”
Similarly, medical facilities are expected to use their own resources when patients require nonemergency transportation. However, some facilities call public emergency personnel instead.
Barth said such calls are less common in Flower Mound, but the fee was added as a precaution.
“It’s more to have those facilities not abuse 911 for non-emergency things that their staff is getting paid to do and should be able to handle within their facility,” he said.
Residents who fall at home and need help getting up can still call the Fire Department for assistance at no charge.
According to the department, Flower Mound residents also are not billed for ambulance services and should not hesitate to seek emergency medical care because of concerns about cost.
“We bill for what insurance will pay us and the rest is written off as no-bill,” Barth said. “That’s their tax dollars at work, and they should never second guess if they need an ambulance or help up – we’ll come to private residences all day, every day to help.”
The Fire Department will continue responding to calls from medical facilities, but facilities may be billed if the calls are determined to be nonemergencies.
According to Barth, a third-party contractor used by Flower Mound and other municipalities determines whether a call was medically necessary and whether a facility should be charged.
Fire officials emphasized that the new fees are not intended to generate additional revenue but to ensure emergency personnel remain available for more urgent calls.
Assistant Fire Chief of Operations Jerry Duffield said patient care could suffer when medical facilities call 911 instead of relying on their own staff to provide routine assistance.
The ordinance also includes provisions intended to prevent medical facilities from passing the fees along to patients when a facility calls 911 for a nonemergency.
Zagurski said the broader fee schedule update was designed to better align fees with the cost of providing services, reflect changes in state law and update the town’s code of ordinances.
