COLUMBUS, Ohio — The city of Columbus is hiring an additional 150 firefighters by the end of the year.
“It has been a problem in this community for years,” said Bruce Miller, president of the Scioto Southland Civic Association.
There are pockets of the city that are deserts, where response times are increased or suburban departments help cover those calls through automatic response.
“It's a great financial burden to the residents here. Some of the seniors I have talked to, it is especially a burden on them. Some of the residents have had to set up payment plans,” Miller explained.
Miller lives doors down from Columbus Fire Station 22, also just down the street from the Columbus Fire Academy.
He says he's had to call for an ambulance five times in six years for his mother.
“Out of those five times, two of them were answered by Columbus fire, two of them were answered by township ambulance. She received a bill twice from the township. I had to fight it,” Miller said.
Miller found out his mother wasn't alone. His neighbors came to him telling him they too, as Columbus residents, had been billed for an ambulance ride from an outside department.
“What occurs, a resident calls for an EMS call, someone else shows up from one of the townships, they receive a bill after their insurance. It's called hard billing,” Miller said.
Not every department bills for non-residents, though they are legally allowed to do so.
Some "soft bill" or send a bill that says in fine print you do not have to pay.
“They say, 'Why is this happening?' 'Why am I being billed seven, eight, $900?' 'Why is my credit being damaged?' Then they have to go through the fight. We think that is not fair because they don't have a choice when they dial 911 in their time of need as to who do they have show up at their door,” Miller said.
According to the Matrix report, a study the city paid to research the needs of the division in 2022, medic units were "utilized so heavily they likely cannot meet the 90% travel time in performance objective. There is an immediate need for five additional medic units in various areas of the city."
“We have a single fire station that covers 25.5 square miles of the city of Columbus territory. We rely on surrounding townships, multiple surrounding townships. We touch Grove City, we touch Franklin Township, Hamilton Township. We go all the way to the Rickenbacker fire department for the airport answers calls in the territory,” Miller said.
The Matrix report also stated as a low priority to add four more fire stations across the city to increase response times. One of those stations would serve Miller's community.
“Between 60-65% of the time, according to Columbus fire department statistics, you will not receive an ambulance from the city of Columbus. It's not because our single city of Columbus fire station is not doing a good job or they are not busy, it's the exact opposite. They are overwhelmed,” Miller said.
According to the Columbus Division of Fire, there were 205,091 runs in the city last year, compared to 143,853 10 years ago.
There are currently 34 fire stations. Ten years ago, there were 32.
“We have more firefighters now than we have ever had in the city and we have added a number of fire stations and built new during my tenure as mayor,” said Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther.
According to CFD, there are 150 more firefighters now than 10 years ago.
Ginther says as the city grows, adding more members and stations is something he monitors. He says mutual aid and automatic response are needed for the region.
“Mutual aid, I think is another great example of regionalism. That is all of us working together as a first responder community to help make sure folks, regardless of where they live in central Ohio, are getting that incredibly important first responder on the scene as quickly as possible,” Ginther said.
Should that help come at a price to residents?
“I know we have been doing EMS billing for as long as I have been on council and mayor. It has worked out very well for Columbus residents, for Columbus Division of Fire making sure that is covered,” Ginther said.
Miller would argue more Columbus fire stations are needed to avoid residents getting billed.
“When you have someone else 60 to 65% of the time answer the calls, that takes some pause and you have to ask what are we doing here and what can we do to make things better?” he said.
10TV reached out to both Hamilton and Jackson Townships about their billing procedure.
In a statement, Jackson Township Fire said, "We bill each patient's insurance if they have it. We do not practice hard billing. Residents do not receive a direct bill regardless of insurance payment, and non-residents may receive up to three statements but will not be held responsible if not paid after that."
Several other areas, including Norwich Township, Jefferson Township, Westerville, Genoa Township and Scioto Township said they do not hard bill.
Hamilton Township said, "We do soft billing. Whether you are in the township or outside of it."
Violet Township and Eastern Knox also said that they soft bill.