The FDNY wants to raise the price of ambulance and emergency medical treatment.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The FDNY wants to raise the price of ambulance and emergency medical treatment
\n
The FDNY blames increased operating costs and says it also aims to reduce the burden on taxpayers by raising the price of EMS ambulance treatment and transport service
\n
While the FDNY cites payroll as one of the reasons for the proposed increases, EMS unions are pushing back, saying EMTs have not had a pay increase in several years<\/p>\n
The cost of a normal or a \u201cbasic life support\u201d ambulance ride would increase approximately 29% from $1,385 to $1,793, while \u201ctreatment in place\u201d service would jump approximately 42% from $630 to $896.<\/p>\n
Fees for Advanced Life Support Service for levels 1 and 2 would increase by more than 30%. Level 1 would increase from $1,680 to $2,196. Level 2 would increase from $1,692 to $2,212.<\/p>\n
Fees for Advanced Life Support Ambulance Treatment in Place, or Facilitation of Treatment in Place, would increase by more than 4% from $1,050 to $1,098.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going from $1,300 to $1,700, which most people can\u2019t afford, even at the current rate,\u201d said Oren Barzila, the president of EMS Local 2507, which represents EMTs and paramedics.<\/p>\n
The FDNY blames increased operating costs and says it also aims to reduce the burden on taxpayers by raising the price of EMS ambulance treatment and transport services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rates are based on the total cost of operating EMS, including payroll costs and supplies, as well as support and capital costs,\u201d an FDNY spokesperson said in a statement to NY1.<\/p>\n
Barzilay is pushing back, particularly on any suggestion that a price increase for FDNY ambulance services would be used to pay EMTs.<\/p>\n
He said his members haven\u2019t had a contract for several years and negotiations with the FDNY have been stalled for months, in part, over wage increases for EMTs. EMS unions have been calling for an increase in pay, saying some workers are paid so little they can\u2019t afford to pay rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, they have to have a reason to give the public as to why they\u2019re increasing the rates,\u201d Barzilay said. \u201cThat it\u2019s going to somehow result in a contract, but that\u2019s not necessarily true. I haven\u2019t seen any discussion about increasing the rates that will reflect our members\u2019 wages.\u201d<\/p>\n
The labor contract for EMS workers has expired, and EMS unions hope pay increases will be included in a new contract.<\/p>\n
Vincent Variale of Local 3621, which represents EMS supervisors, said it needs to happen soon. He said at least 600 EMS workers have quit since last year, and hundreds more are expected to quit in the coming months over low wages.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can\u2019t fill the class,\u201d Variale said. \u201cThe starting rate [for] this job is $18 an hour. You could make more money driving [for] Uber. Why would you want to do this?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we haven\u2019t gotten a raise in four years, I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing with the money they say they\u2019re taking for our salaries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While Variale understands a price increase for ambulance and EMS services in this economy, he says higher wages for EMTs should be a priority for the FDNY.<\/p>\n
NY1 has reached out to City Hall for comment and hasn\u2019t heard back.<\/p>\n
The FDNY will conduct a virtual public hearing on Microsoft Teams at 11 a.m. on May 15, 2026. People can comment on the proposed rules on the FDNY\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
The last time there was an increase in medical transport fees and services was three years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FDNY wants to raise the price of ambulance and emergency medical treatment. What You Need To Know…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[387,25,98,100,99,9,24,12,26,63,308,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-204214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-app-public-safety","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-brooklyn","11":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","12":"tag-brooklyn-news","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-nia-clark","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-public-safety","19":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}