The Common council under your leadership authorized the City’s administration to negotiate the purchase the EMS with its liabilities.
No Public report has been issued of the results.
Will this become another future accrued budgetary adjustment?
The Public and Taxpayers should be updated before completing and approval of the Common Council's budget this month.
6 comments:
The success of government owned/operated business is dismal at best.
The most glaring example being Amtrak.
It seems our local pols have a short memory, remember New Britain’s foray into the sports franchise business?
Then there is the liability risk. Can the town (taxpayers) be held accountable for the inherent risks of an Emergency Response Company?
What about rising insurance cost? I can't imagine that it is cheap for an EMS.
Monica Polanco of the Hartford Courant recently gave a grim report of the New Britain EMS's financial status. She cited:
Low reimbursement rates from Medicaid
Depreciation of the agency's assets, debts and revenue.
Ballooning insurance cost and wages.
Also Mayor Stewart was quoted in the Hartford Courant as saying:
"About three years ago, the city took out a $2.1 million loan on behalf of New Britain EMS. The agency, which used the money to refurnish its building at 225 Arch St., will repay the city over 20 years."
I guess we would just eat those cost if Majority leader Trueworthy has his way.
Bruce Baxter, New Britain EMS executive director and chief of service says in the Courant article "I've got to be honest this is a crisis point."
My question to the Town Council Mayor Stewart and to Alderman Trueworthy in particular is:
How can the taxpayers be expected to finance the purchase an entity that is so far into the red?
Maybe bringing this issue to the surface tonight will cause Trueworthy to have another meltdown.
911 service in New Britain is mandatory and places our citizens lives in great peril without a quality emergency response system.
EMS provides a high quality service in New Britain. The problem is the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Because of New Britain's demographics we house a disproportionate number of elderly and/or low income individuals. These individuals utilize EMS at a high rate.
Medicaid, the system set-up BY WASHINGTON to pay for medical care for the poor, only reimburses EMS 40 cents for every $1 billed. EMS was and is bleeding money because of this. If you take into consideration there is another 10% of users that are self insured (NO INSURANCE) there is over 50% of the EMS calls that go unpaid or poorly paid.
Because of this EMS was forced to charge over $800 for an ambulance ride to NBGH. Now the insurance companies are saying $800 is too much and started scaling back their payments to EMS.
For many years, EMS received a stipend to assist in the funding of their company. EMS is NOT a city department or agency. It is an independent company. The stipend was eliminated over 10 years ago. I know because I pushed for the unfunding. At the time, the Medicaid / MediCare funding was not anywhere close to the problem it is today. Management, at that time, was not performing to our expectations. Once Bruce Baxter and Jan Carboneau arrived they totally revamped EMS to the point where it was a well managed, well funded operation.
Taking back the assets of EMS, in particular, the building and vehicles was the cleanest, most cost effective solution to the EMS's funding problem. EMS used the full credit backing of the City to purchase their vehicles and allowed them to fix their building on Arch Street.
By "trading" debt for these assets the City protected its investment in EMS and protected the long term solvency of EMS. This, in my opinion, was a small price to pay for the continuation of quality ambulatory, paramedic health care in our community.
The EMS issue is not whether Mike Trueworthy gave this a hearing. He did. The only issue is adequate reimbursement for the MedicAid / MediCare covered patients.
This is an Obama (and Bush prior), Murphy (and Johnson prior) problem.
Single payer (meaning us) is not the solution. This only identifies WHO will pay, not how hospitals, clinics, labs, doctors, or EMS will be paid. In my opinion MORE government meddling in a system that was made corrupt by the same government will only deepen the problem.
Mark Bernacki
ps sorry for the length of this post
Is it possible to use private ambulance services in New Britain, such as AMR or Aetna Ambulance to respond to emergency calls?
Let's not go off half-cocked and destroy a perfectly good system for the sake of profit. All one has to do is surf the internet for one study after another that explains how EMS is not meant to be a profitable service.
The main problem with operating any EMS system for profit is that the most reliable system dictates that ambulances and paramedics be sitting idle for hours or even days on end, just waiting for that call to come in.
For this reason, the private sector is unable to operate such a system for profit and do so successfully. This is one area, and possibly the only one, that must be operated by the government to be successful, or at the minimum, funded by the government.
What other area towns have done is to contract with private ambulance suppliers to actually reimburse the company for the cost of each ambulance and crew that is stationed in that town idly waiting for a call. The town actually pays the company by the hour for these crews to be available in their town.
I would guess that would amount to a much higher cost to the taxpayers than simply providing the needed assistance to the current New Britain EMS. The bottom line is that if the residents want the same level of service they have come to depend on from New Britain EMS, then they have to pay. If not, contract it out and see what you get. I pasted an excerpt from one such report below, but the internet is full of horror stories regarding privatization of EMS services, so don't believe me, do your own research.
one such report:
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I must echo the views given by Michael McComis in his letter to the editor that was printed on Sunday. To do anything but support the current EMS system for Wise County would be a huge and fatal mistake.
As Michael pointed out, privatization of EMS is about one thing: profit. No private company is going to be able to come into Wise County and offer a service of the caliber that is currently offered by the County EMS.
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In closing, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.
Alderman Bernacki: Your summation of the major problems that our EMS faces financially was well outlined.
It is unfortunate that this information, you were able to take the time in order to explain these facts, should have been made public by the Majority leader of the Common Council but he chose to keep the public uninformed.
Maybe it is time for our state representatives and representative Murphy to create a reimbursement plan in helping our city with this dilemma.
I do recognize that the City of New Britain’s demographics is housing an alarming number of elderly and low income individuals and the state legislature with the Congress should give the city a helping hand in the providing the EMS the funds needing in helping these unfortunate individuals.
Thank you for enlightening us all.
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