EXCELSIOR SPRINGS – Fire Department’s ambulance service rates increased. On Sept. 20, the City Council passed an ordinance for across-the-board cost increases, per Fire Chief Joe Maddick’s request. Changes include the department’s emergency level advanced life support services, with a $400 increase for ALS 1 service and a $550 increase for ALS 2 service, city documents state. Other changes include a $125 increase for ALS non-emergency service. Expected to bring in roughly an additional $60,000 each year, the increases will “only affect private insurance and private pay” patients, Maddick told city leaders. Those clients amount to “one-third of the patients we transport,” Maddick said. “(It) won’t affect Medicare patients, Medicaid patients or the individuals that have memberships with our program,” he said. Raising the ambulance service rates was necessary “due to the everincreasing cost of doing service,” Madd...