Columbus Neighborhood Association

So inevitably the water bill for the HOA will have the EMSA charge tacked on. Is this an unnecessary charge that should be removed? If someone gets hurt at the pool and the ambulance comes, does that person pay for the ambulance ride or is it up to the HOA? And if the latter, can the HOA save money by dropping ambulance coverage from the HOA insurance?

I Agree

Excellent observations. I hope someone on the board is looking into this.
Something that might be of interest is that apparently one may opt-out of the $3.64 per month EMSA fee that will hit water bills soon. Unless RPHA opts out of this fee (assuming it could), I assume each of its three monthly water bills (entry, detention area and pool) will have this fee, resulting in a total fee of $131.04 (3.64*3*12) per year.
Of course, this is only one element of the analyses of the EMSA fee in order to determine what is best for RPHA. Like you said, who pays for the ambulance ride and the dropping of ambulance coverage from HOA insurance (if applicable) should be evaluated.
Individual homeowners may opt out of this fee for the water bill they receive for their home. I assume RPHA may opt out of this fee, but I am not sure. If I remember correctly, the RPHA bills are for residential service so the bill is like one a homeowner would get.
Information on opting out of the fee can be found at http://roemerman.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-to-opt-out-of-emsa-fee.html . This website says to opt out of the fee (i.e., if you are interested in not having the fee tacked on to your bill), call 596-9511 (7:30 AM ?– 6:00 PM, M-F) and ask for a form to fill out.

Additional Thoughts

Here are some of my additional thoughts on the EMSA fee on water bills.

The City of Tulsa informed me that the EMSA fee opt-out form is available at www.emsaonline.com. To access and print the form, go to this website, click on ?“City of Tulsa?’s New Ambulance Service Program?”, click on ?“Opting out ?…?” and then click on the underlined text. The opt-out form for single-family customers must be returned by June 30.

Since RPHA bills have the single-family rate, perhaps RPHA could (if it wants to) opt out using this form. This is something RPHA should find out.

If the fee will appear on all three water bills received by RPHA and RPHA has the option to opt-out of these fees, then the analysis by RPHA on what to do could consider opting out on all three bills or just two of the three, depending on the insurance coverage, cost, etc.

I would assume that if RPHA is not allowed to opt-out, then the fee should not appear on the bills. If RPHA is not allowed to opt out and the fee appears on the bills, then RPHA may want to challenge the fee being on the bill since the intent was to allow an opt-out.

Moreover, if RPHA cannot opt out of the fees, then RPHA should challenge there being three fees (one on each bill) instead of just one fee for the whole of RPHA.

Here, I'm making it easy.

http://www.optoutemsa.com