Members of the Delaware County board of supervisors asked questions as Emergency Services Director Stephen Hood gave a report on the ambulance service during its Jan. 24 meeting.
Delaware County entered into a three-year contract with American Medical Response in December 2022 to provide ambulance backup to local volunteer and paid agencies. The company provides two basic life support staffed ambulances and one fly car staffed with an advance life support paramedic.
Hood said about 25% of the calls needed the ALS paramedic to ride in the ambulance with the patient.
Hood outlined how the first year of the contract went. He said the service was called 2,281 times, and it interacted with 1,525 patients in 2023. The other 843 times the company was canceled en route because the volunteer ambulance squad was able to respond.
Hamden Town Supervisor Wayne Marshfield asked if the county has to pay if the ambulance is canceled. Hood said no.
According to the report, the ambulance service provided care to 37 patients in Andes, 16 in Bovina, 42 in Colchester, 212 in Davenport, 447 in Delhi, 96 in Franklin, 45 in Hamden, three in Hancock, 85 in Harpersfield, 47 in Kortright, six in Masonville, 51 in Meredith, one in Middletown, 54 in Roxbury, 86 in Sidney, 152 in Stamford, 15 in Tompkins and 130 in Walton. The town of Deposit is serviced by Broome County. The towns of Hancock and Sidney, whose service also covers Masonville, have paid ambulance services. Middletown is served by the Margaretville Hospital ambulance. The Headwaters EMS covers Stamford, Kortright and Harpersfield and started operating in May.
Marshfield said a majority of Delhi’s calls were to the nursing home.
Hood said the service averaged seven calls per day and responded to four calls per day. The report gave the calls by month, and September had the most with 95 patients treated.
The county paid for the first year of the $1.9 million contract using American Rescue Plan Act funds. The second and third years will have to be budgeted. The county receives a discount from the company on how much money it receives from billing patients.
However, what is received is far less than what it costs to run the service because 85% of the people transported are on Medicare or Medicaid, Hood said. The federal government set a set price of $250 per Medicaid call, however, the BLS base rate is $1,500. The ambulance service cannot charge the patient more than the $250 it receives.
Hood said the net revenue per transport was $482.99, which was 23.7% of the actual costs.
Walton Town Supervisor Joe Cetta asked Budget Director and Colchester Town Supervisor Art Merrill if he had started preparing to have the service in next year’s budget. Merrill said he had already started working on next year’s budget.
Franklin Town Supervisor Donald Smith asked if AMR was asking for more money each year. The company will receive $90,000 more this year, Hood said. Smith asked if there were any competitors to AMR. Hood said Ambulnz’s bid for the last request for proposal came in late. Ambulnz serves as a transport from Delaware Valley Hospital to larger hospitals in Binghamton and will respond to calls in the Walton area if needed.
Sidney Town Supervisor Eric Wilson said the company should put the service out to bid near the end of the existing contract.
Smith asked in AMR hired local employees. Hood said many of the company’s employees are also volunteer EMTs, and the company has a partnership with SUNY Cobleskill where it will pay students as they train to become EMTs.