The Whitefish City Council on Monday night voted to increase the city’s fire and ambulance fees for the first time since 2019, raising the costs 22% across the board.
The series of resident and non-resident fees approved by the council, however, were significantly lower than the fees proposed by a consulting firm last spring, which suggested raising some fees as much as 67%.
The fees are set to take effect Feb. 2 and are estimated to generate about $175,000 more each year for the city through ambulance services, according to city documents.
After a lengthy discussion among council members and city staff Monday night, Councilor Steve Qunell told meeting-goers he’d be voting to approve the fee hike but wouldn’t like it — a sentiment seemingly shared by others on the dais.
“In this case, this is one of those things where you just have to hold your nose knowing that you’re going through a stinking pile of crap, and that’s what it is,” Qunell said. “So, I am going to vote for this, knowing that I don’t like it, but I don’t see another solution in terms of funding our emergency services.”
This is the first fee increase approved by the city council since December 2016 when the council approved increased ambulance fees, along with additional automatic increases each year from 2017 to 2019.
“Once that ended, we were really kind of crunched with time for staff trying to manage everything from Covid to growth policies,” City Manager Dana Meeker told council members regarding the lack of increase since 2019.
To address the outdated fees, the city council in March 2024 awarded a $27,500 contract to a firm, Baker Tilly, to complete an ambulance and fire rescue rate study. When the firm presented its findings in May 2025, however, the city council directed city staff to prepare recommended fee adjustments, ideally lower than those recommended.
The firm recommended a variety of fee increases depending on the service and city residential status, with increases ranging from 21% to 67%. Basic Life Support was the service with the highest recommended increase with 58% for residents and 67% for non-residents. This would set the cost of the service at $1,691 and $2,270, respectively, according to city documents.
The fees approved by the city council on Monday night were significantly less than those proposed by the firm. Instead of varying increases, each service for both residents and non-residents saw a 22% increase.
New fees taking effect next month for residents include: $1,304 for “Basic Life Support,” $1,531 for “Advanced Life Support” and $538 for treatment but no transport, according to city documents.
Councilor Ben Davis, who was the lone opposing vote to the fee increase, was the first to express his discontent with the raise in fees. He noted the increase wasn’t the fault of the city staff, but the medical and billing system as a whole.
“I realize I’m sitting here in a city council meeting raving about the world, but I’m voting on something in front of me that is a part of that,” Davis said. “We have this system where we set these artificially higher rates; we know insurers are not going to pay them, and the people that get hurt the most by this are the people that are underinsured, that are not insured, who are not in a position to push back on these rates.”
“I think nobody should be scared to call EMS if there’s an emergency,” Davis added. “You should be calling EMS and not being worried about getting hit with a bill.”
The city’s Rescue Care program aims to address this fear of calling emergency services due to cost by offering a one-time fee to cover any costs accrued through an ambulance transport.
If a Rescue Care member needs ambulance transport by the Whitefish Fire Department, Rescue Care will bill the individual’s insurance carrier and consider whatever insurance covers as payment in full. The annual membership fee covers everything else.
Community members can sign up for the program at any time, with household memberships at $59 per year for Whitefish residents or $185 per year for Flathead County residents living outside of Whitefish city limits but residing within the Whitefish Ambulance service area.
Councilor Rebecca Norton suggested the city advertise the program more as a response to the increased fees, but Meeker said that might have an undesired effect, noting the Rescue Care program’s fee will likely also be re-evaluated since it hasn’t increased much in the more than two decades of the program.
“In the future, if we did see all of our customers go to Rescue Care, we would have to put restrictions on it because it would effectively decrease our revenues, if you think about it,” Meeker said.