Since a Tuna Valley Council of Governments meeting in August,
area municipalities have been struggling with a proposal by the
city to find a way to continue to provide ambulance service for
their residents.
The city asked Foster, Bradford, Corydon and Lafayette townships
and Lewis Run Borough to take a look at their budgets and find a
way to support the city ambulance service that has been funded
solely by Bradford City taxpayers for the past 20 years.
The issue that has supervisors troubled is the fact that in
continuing to provide city ambulance service for their residents,
they each may have to increase taxes at least 1/8 of a mill. In
addition to this added cost, they face the loss of city ambulance
service for their residents, or the necessity to look elsewhere for
coverage.
“We will notify the state we are no longer the primary ambulance
service in that area,” said Bradford City Mayor Michele Corignani
Tuesday. “The (McKean County Emergency) 911 Center would call their
primary service in the event they choose another. If there is a
problem, 911 would call out the next closest service and that may
be the city. The only issue I see with that is that most times,
time is of the essence.”
In a previous story, it was explained that if a call is not
answered in a six-minute time period, for example, a second call
will go out for another provider to respond, and so on, creating a
longer response time.
“We have asked the solicitor to look into how we can recuperate
our costs if they prefer an independent service that doesn’t meet
the 911 criteria and the city gets toned out,” added Corignani.
In some cases, supervisors and residents alike have expressed
mistrust of where the funding will end up. Other questions asked
include reasons the city needs to have the extra funds to continue
service in the first place.
Corignani said the idea has been discussed internally in council
for two years.
“Anytime a government official looks at a budget, you look at
where your money goes and where you get it from,” said Corignani.
“The city service is very viable and it will continue. The only
thing is, it is unfair for the City of Bradford residents to carry
the full burden of the cost of equipment and manpower.”
And still, some municipalities are faced with the fact they
can’t, or can hardly support, the volunteer fire departments in
their areas as it is, and asking them to contribute to an outside
source would seem less than loyal to them.
For the city, they asked for the contributions to support the
ambulance service in areas of maintenance, call-out time – which
means the coverage of manpower at the station when an ambulance is
already out – and the cost of a new ambulance over a five year
period.
Their concern is that city residents have been paying for
maintenance, salaries and ambulance costs for the past 20 years
while the ambulance continued to travel into outlying townships and
boroughs.
Each municipality was given a calculated version of what their
contribution might be if they choose to remain with the city
ambulance service.
Within those proposals, the three items needing support were
listed outside of the general budget. Call-out time has a number of
$66,000; maintenance has a number of $6,000; and five year
amortization, two ambulances has an amount of $40,000 next to it.
One ambulance costs $100,000, and the amount that goes toward a new
ambulance will be put aside in its own account. The total of all of
the previous listed amounts as reported on the provided budget is
$112,000.
By taking the percent number of calls the city ambulance service
made to each municipality over three years, it is then multiplied
by the total of $112,000, which is then divided by the number of
residents in that municipality listed in the 2000 census.
Costs per household a year, as calculated by city officials and
provided to The Era, show residents of Bradford Township paying an
additional $8.25 per year; Corydon Township residents paying $9.18
per year; Foster Township residents paying $8.09 per year;
Lafayette Township residents paying $9.18 per year; and Lewis Run
Borough residents paying $7.47 per household per year.
When residents at public meetings held in Bradford Township and
Lewis Run Borough ask what the ambulance service is doing with the
payments they receive, they are given an explanation of charges
versus actual payment received.
An explanation is as follows: an Advanced Life Support call is
charged at $550, of that, Medicare will approve $278.96, while the
co-pay to the patient amounts to $69.74, unless he or she has
supplemental coverage. Total reimbursement comes to $348.70.
An ALS call includes one paramedic and one emergency medical
technician (EMT) aboard the ambulance during the call that can
perform such duties as endotracheal intubation, central venous line
and cardiac pacing.
A Basic Life Support call is charged at $350; of that Medicare
will pay $220.92 and the co-pay of $55.23 will be charged to the
patient, unless he or she has supplemental coverage. Total
reimbursement to the ambulance service is $276.15.
A BLS call includes two EMTs who can perform duties such as
First Aid, splinting and CPR and automatic external
defribulation.
Medicaid payments for ALS calls are $200 of the $550 charge, and
payments for BLS calls at a base of $350 are $100. With Medicaid,
payments of $2 per mile is paid after 20 miles.
In a previous article, City Fire Chief Bill McCormack said they
usually receive full, or most of the cost in payment, from those
with full coverage insurance policies.
The base rates charged for each ambulance call increased $50 in
August last year. Reasons for the rise in basic charges included a
rise in costs and expenses.
None of the municipalities have decided yet what avenue they
will take. The city has asked them to respond, or to at least let
them know, what they are intending to do before Oct. 1.
“We need to know what their intents are. If they need time, Oct.
19 is doable (as in Bradford Township’s case),” said Corignani. “We
are asking for a commitment. There are ordinances that need to be
done. We are setting the payment date to mid-year. The document
(sent to the townships and boroughs) is not concrete.”
The Foster Township Supervisors meet informally with residents
at 7:30 p.m. today; the Bradford Township Supervisors plan a
tentative meeting for residents Oct. 3; Lewis Run Borough plans to
meet with fire department personnel to find out more information;
and Corydon Township will wait to hear back from their residents
from a mailer they will send out.
Lafayette Township Supervisor Chairman John Ryan said Tuesday
night they have a unique situation in which they are already
covered by two other ambulance services, including Mount Jewett
Ambulance for the Westline area and Hilltop Ambulance Service for
the Big Shanty area. That leaves the Marshburg area, which is
already covered by Bradford City ambulance calls at this time.
Ryan said they would meet with the different agencies and then
go from there before making a decision on what they will do for
continued coverage.
