PRESENTER: Presenter
Ruy Lozano, Fire Chief
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SUBJECT: Title
Approval of a contract amendment with Emergicon to incorporate Fire Department Billing Cost Recovery Services for the City of New Braunfels Fire Department through EMERGIFIRE LLC.
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DEPARTMENT: Fire
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COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: All
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The City’s Fire Department has a contractor agreement to provide complete management from the collection of billable services provided by City’s Fire Department Staff through account closure, to include but not be limited to, billing services, accounts receivable services, operational and financial data reporting and analytical services.
The Fire Department uses Fire Recovery USA LLC for Fire Services billing. This contract expired December 13, 2025. The Fire Department identified possible replacements for this firm. After evaluating their capabilities, references, and customer service, The Fire Department has determined that EMERGIFIRE LLC provides the best value for the City. In addition, the Fire Department has identified potential for increased recovery percentage from insurance companies and opportunities for improved customer service.
The City’s Fire Department entered into a contract with EMERGICON in October 2023, which is the same company as EMERGIFIRE, for emergency medical service billing. To utilize EMERGIFIRE services, an amendment to the current EMERGICON contract will be required. The city would no longer have to utilize two different billing companies for both Fire Services billing and Emergency Medical Services billing which will lead to greater efficiencies and improved collection rates.
The term of the agreement will remain valid through September 30, 2028, which is concurrent with the existing Emergicon agreement approved by Council on October 23, 2026 via item 23-1397.
ISSUE:
Currently fire department administrative staff must extract all the data out of emergency incident reports and then enter the data into Fire Recovery USA LLC’s system. This is very time consuming.
As stated above, the fire department currently uses EMERGICON, which is the same company as EMERGIFIRE, for emergency medical service billing and has access to the emergency incident reports. EMERGIFIRE will extract the data themselves and save a large number of staff hours.
STRATEGIC PLAN REFERENCE:
☐Economic Mobility ☐Enhanced Connectivity ☐Community Identity
☒Organizational Excellence ☒Community Well-Being ☐N/A
FISCAL IMPACT:
Fire billing helps offset the cost of providing emergency response services. EMERGIFIRE will receive 15% of the total collections received. Therefore, their compensation is contingent upon collection on billings. The previous provider, Fire Recovery USA LLC, received 20% of collections received. As a result, fire collection rates and billing revenue will increase with EMERGIFIRE.
Recommendation
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of a contract amendment with EMERGICON LLC to include fire billing cost recovery services with EMERGIFIRE LLC.