[Mpls] Additional Fund Sources of the Fire Department..Insurancewon't pay

[John McClellan]

Hi Dorie, I'm sorry you were involved in a crash, but
I'm glad to hear you didn't suffer any severe
injuries.  Sorry if I sounded defensive in my past
post, but I fear that many in the general public (and
our own City Council) really have no clue what it is a
modern fire department does.

Do you have a link to the text authorising Fire to
charge for response?  I did a little searching and
couldn't find the specific text.   

Looking through the Mpls FD Business Plan, on page 33,
it says that they will study billing for "hydraulic
extrication and for backboarding".  It doesn't sound
like either service was done for you.  

I could see where hydraulic extrication could be used
as a billing point since it requires the dispatch of
additional rigs (a ladder and/or heavy rescue) and can
be a time consuming process.   "Backboarding" is a bit
more nebulous, since it's often officially recommended
even in minor crashes as CYA, but often not
practically neccesary.

It certainly wouldn't surprise me if whatever was
passed either doesn't make sense or is unclear,
especially seeing how many typo's there are in the
business plan!  (Apparently Microsoft's Excel is now
our electrical utility provider).   And the various
Insurance Companies are in no hurry to start writing
out checks or boosting their payouts.

You might check with some of the other local fire
departments to see what their billing policy is for
crash response, I think Maple Grove or Rogers may be
one that bills.   However again, I think this is only
going to be in the case of actual extrication and not
simply being on scene.

If you could post the text or a link to it, I'd be
very interested.

Good luck

John McClellan
Keewaydin


		
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