Financial Problems at New Britain EMS

Few people realize that the New Britain EMS Service is a non-profit corporation not actually operated by the city. The EMS service is suffering from financial problems due in part by the number of transports they perform for the uninsured and the lower payments they receive for Medicaid transports--$208 versus $435 for Medicare transports—but there is more to the story than just the fees.

At their regular Wednesday night meeting, the city council approved a measure that will authorize the mayor to purchase the equipment and negotiate a lease to the EMS service at a rate that will allow them to keep operating at least for the time being.

New Britain EMS responds to all calls for medical aid in the city without regard to a victim’s insurance or ability to pay. New Britain residents are also fortunate that we have one of the best equipped, best trained, most efficient EMS services in the state. The people of New Britain need to decide if they want to keep receiving such valuable services, and then if they do, we all have to make a commitment to these professionals to provide the financial assistance needed to keep the program running efficiently.

THE REST OF THE STORY:

Many of you are probably of the opinion that the fees charged for transports should be able to provide the needed finances to run an operation like this one, but that has been proven wrong in a number of studies nationwide. Many of you may remember all the problems a few years back with the contract ambulance services in Hartford and all the reports that surfaced about the lack of response, poor response times, and just no ambulances being available for life threatening emergencies. During that period, there was a lot of attention given to studies in Sarasota County Florida, Los Angeles City Fire Dept, and a number of other cities.

Sarasota County reported similar problems as Hartford was experiencing with a contract ambulance service having unacceptable response times, and no ambulances available when needed for serious life threatening emergencies. What they determined in the Sarasota case was that there is a direct conflict between profitability and the proper deployment of ambulances for the needs of public safety.

In many cases public safety needs dictate that an ambulance, staffed with a fully trained and equipped EMS crew is kept stationary for hours on end simply waiting for a call. Public safety needs dictate that this crew be ready to respond on a moment’s notice for the next life or death emergency call. The quick response time needed to maintain such a response requires that these crews be in standby just waiting for that call, and this is anything but profitable. It is this conflict between public safety needs and profitability that has been at the route of most failures we have seen with privatization of EMS services nationwide. In the Sarasota case, they had abandoned the arrangement with the contract company and opted for their fire department taking over the EMS service and stationing their own ambulances at fire houses throughout the county.

That might be a little too drastic for our needs here in New Britain. We already have established one of the best EMS programs in the state, so quite frankly, if it isn’t broke, let’s not try to fix it. What we need to do is make sure our city is committed to making sure they are given the financial support they need to continue doing the great job they are already doing. The council has already taken the first step by allowing the mayor to purchase the equipment and leasing it back to them. A number of other Connecticut communities have been faced with similar financial problems with their EMS programs and had to resort to appropriating funds to keep them operating. If that is what we need to do to keep those ambulances rolling then that would be money well spent.