Citizens' Ambulance juggles a lot of factors seeking to stay afloat
Ambulance rides and municipal fees all figure into how Citizens' Ambulance tries to keep its operations going. Citizens' Ambulance Service (CAS) is facing financial difficulties, including a $1.5 million deficit for 2023 and a $5 million shortfall for the next year. The service provides emergency ambulance service to 33 municipalities, which contribute a combined total of $15,000 a year. This comes as part of a larger effort to stay afloat, with concerns about insurance payments and financial stability among other services. Citizens’ then-Vice President Dewayne Dills warned that the county-wide service would likely shrink, but not immediately. A partnership is also on the county level, with Indiana County commissioners approving the formation of an emergency authority in August 2023. However, state law prevents the creation of this authority and the 38 municipalities that make up up the council.
Veröffentlicht : vor 10 Monaten durch PATRICK CLOONAN [email protected] in Environment
The factors affecting Citizens’ Ambulance Service as it plans to incorporate its for-profit partner Ambulance Service Management Corporation include a problem reported by ambulance services across Pennsylvania and the country.
“You get called out to somebody who is having an issue,” said William B. Simmons, Indiana mayor and CAS board president. “If they refuse transport you don’t get paid.”
It is a complicated matter, and not the only one for ambulance services that involves insurance payments.
In March, according to an investigative report on KDKA-2 in Pittsburgh focused on a Westmoreland County ambulance service, “like just about every other emergency medical service in the state, Mutual Aid in Greensburg is bleeding money — a $5 million shortfall just last year, and yet they continue to provide emergency ambulance service to 33 municipalities, which contribute a combined total of $15,000 a year.”
The TV station said Mutual Aid now is asking those 33 municipalities for further help.
Next door to Mutual Aid’s service area is the former coverage area of Jeannette EMS.
Its Facebook page still is available, including the July 3, 2023, notice that “the biggest hit to not only us, but to any ambulance service is the poor reimbursement rates the insurance companies pay out and with that, we can unfortunately no longer provide services to the City of Jeannette.”
Jeannette EMS officials added, “we are sadly not the first service to have this happen to us and we will unfortunately not be the last. We urge you, speak with your government representatives. Let them know that a plan needs to be formulated to save EMS services before it’s too late.”
A little over two months before Jeannette EMS closed its doors, Citizens’ then-Vice President Dewayne Dills (who still serves on the CAS board) told Blairsville Borough Council that Citizens’ was facing a $1.5 million shortfall for 2023, warning in March 2023 that, if the ambulance service couldn’t collect enough funds through donations, memberships, municipal contributions and so forth, it will reduce its services in 2024.
“What will likely happen first is the county-wide service will probably shrink,” Dills said. “We’ve got stations in Indiana and Blairsville, and we certainly will maintain that, but (places like) Hillsdale, Homer City and the outlying communities, West Wheatfield and so on, will not have that physical presence. We’ll still respond to calls if we can, but it’ll be a lot longer.”
Such a reduction did not take place, as yet.
When CAS held its annual meeting in October 2023, Simmons said, “it’s no secret we, like every other ambulance service, are struggling financially. We are once again facing a $1.5 million deficit to respond to 9,400 calls a year or roughly 25 each day.”
In the news release announcing CAS plans to incorporate ASMC staff and operations, Dills talked about “Memberships of $75 a family ($65 for seniors) along with donations and grants helped Citizens’ stay afloat for the past few years. That is no longer the case. We are looking to establish a solid partnership with the municipalities, combined with the operational wisdom of ASMC employees to keep Citizens’ without debt and financially strong.”
A partnership is coming on the county level, as municipal officials throughout the county discuss development of a county-wide emergency authority.
In August 2023, Indiana County’s board of commissioners authorized the funding of the formation of such an authority.
The commissioners approved agreements with Mette, Evans & Woodside of Harrisburg to provide legal services; Robb Consulting LLC of Lemoyne, Cumberland County, to serve as a consultant; and PRWorks of Lower Paxton Township, Dauphin County, to provide marketing and public relations.
Beyond that, however, Board Chairman R. Michael Keith said, state law says the county cannot take this on, leaving it up to the new authority and the 38 municipalities that make up Indiana County. Commissioner Robin A. Gorman said the more involvement from those municipalities will mean a less-expensive cost for each household in Indiana County.
“Municipalities could put a fee in place for their residents to provide emergency services for their residents,” Dills said in Blairsville in March 2023. “And they actually have the legal obligation to do that. It doesn’t dictate as to how they fund it. It’s one of those unfunded mandates. The law says it is the responsibility of local municipalities, boroughs and townships to provide that service for their citizens. It doesn’t tell them how, it doesn’t tell them who (will fund it), and they never had to worry about it because we’ve always done it.”
He told Blairsville officials that a tax could be involved, noting how White Township instituted a recycling fee some years ago.
The proposed authority would have oversight over ambulances run in Indiana County by Citizens’ as well as LifeStat based in the Saltsburg area, and local runs of other ambulance services that are based outside the county, such as Veterans from Northern Cambria.
It also would oversee volunteer fire companies that depend on mutual aid for manpower, sometimes utilizing volunteer firefighters from beyond county borders.
As Center board of supervisors chairperson Matthew Housholder pointed out at a recent meeting, “Center Township will not pass an ordinance without first holding a public meeting to go over the information with the residents.”
Themen: Environment-ESG