Central New York’s rural fire departments that also provide ambulance services are hoping state lawmakers take action on critical legislation before they wrap up session this week. The EMS cost recovery bill has sponsors in both houses of the legislature. Executive Director of the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs Jerry Deluca says New York is the only state in the nation that prohibits fire department ambulance services from billing for their expenses.
They’re treated differently than privately-owned ambulances or not-for-profit ambulance services, which can recover costs from insurance, such as private insurance, Medicaid or Medicare. The legislation we’re pursuing would allow fire department ambulances to be treated in the same way as all other ambulance services.”
FIRE DEPARTMENTS COULD STOP AMBULANCE SERVICES DUE TO COSTS
Deluca says 460 departments have ambulance services across New York, and provide an estimated $100 million in services that they can’t recover. Most of them are in rural areas and staffed by volunteers who want to provide the service to the community. But Deluca says the high cost of training, recruitment, retention, and even paying some EMT’s has forced many departments to shed their ambulances.
“The fact that fire departments can’t bill means they can’t hire people because they need to hire because of the amount of training. So that’s especially important because fire department ambulances service a lot of rural areas where the for-profit ambulances are such a distance away.”
Deluca says this puts lives at risk. He says the cost recovery bill is still in committee in both houses, and they’ll continue to push for a vote during the waning days of session.
