Generic Ambulance File Photo (credit: CBS 2)
NEW YORK (CBS 2) – It’s a controversial move to help close New York City’s budget gap.
The City reportedly will begin charging private hospitals up to a million dollars a year for ambulances dispatched by the 9-1-1 system.
According to Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, the Fire Department, which runs emergency medical services, began alerting hospitals to new policy earlier this month.
Some medical professionals said they worry the fees will prompt some private hospitals to stop providing ambulance service.
8 Comments
its not free service when tax payers pay fdny to dispatch you guys.
December 11, 2010 at 1:26 am
its not free service when tax payers by fdny to dispatch you guys.
December 11, 2010 at 1:24 am
If even one hospital pulls their EMS units the public will suffer enormously, as they are since multiple recent hospital closings. What the public is not aware of is how many ‘tours’ FDNY is suppose to cover but constantly shut the units down because of staffing issues. Staffing at FDNY EMS is a serious issue that is kept very quiet from the public. To charge these hospitals that ultimately provide ambulances for FREE is outrageous and consistent with FDNY’s agenda to rid hospital based ambulances though they would never be able to cover the additional almost 40% of NYC that hospitals cover.
If the media and public demanded clarity of EMS numbers in NYC, one would see how broken the system is and how selective EMS units are staffed.
December 9, 2010 at 7:31 pm
If the apes stopped using EMS as a taxi, these costs would be controllable.
December 9, 2010 at 11:06 am
Voluntary Hospitals provide 35 percent of the 911 Ambulance Service in New York City at no cost to the taxpayers. It is the largest public, non-profit ambulance partnership in the world.
NYC-EMS Ambulances responds to more than 1.2 million medical emergencies per year, or approximately 3500 calls per day. Although EMS in New York City is controlled and dispatched by the Fire Department, approximately 35% of the ambulances in the system are operated by the non-profit hospitals. NYC Voluntary Hospitals have historically provided emergency ambulances for over 125 years.
If FDNY would place financial burdens on Voluntary Hospital ambulances that provide services the city, they would be responsible to restore those services at the cost of 175 million dollars of the NYC taxpayers.
The cost of charging a non for profit hospital an astronomical fee to cover the cost of Dispatching and On-Line Medical Control Services is an outrage. The FDNY would need to provide the same amount of support services regardless of what ambulance is dispatched or required On-Line Medical Control. These services would still need to provided, whether it’s an FDNY Ambulance or a Hospital Ambulance.
There are still multiple areas of NYC that still do not have adequate EMS coverage and Voluntary Hospital Units are redeployed daily to these communities because of inadequate staffing. NYC Voluntary Hospitals are an immense part of the NYC-EMS System. Voluntary Hospitals regularly place additional ambulance resources into the 911 System when there is high 911 call volume, MCI’s, large scale events (ie:NYC Marathon, NYC 5 Borough Bike Tour) and severe weather conditions.
These financial decisions are being made by top FDNY-EMS ranking officials who are not even taxpayers of NYC themselves. All of these top rankling EMS Chiefs live outside New York State and the New York City area.
December 9, 2010 at 10:09 am
This will increase response times, cost lives and increase taxes. The hospitals provide those units to the city for free. The city should pay them! Perhaps the EMS chiefs should give up thier city cars and e-z pass. They should also have to live in the city instead of New Jersey
December 9, 2010 at 9:35 am
Now you idiots who voted for Obama get to pay the price.
December 9, 2010 at 7:44 am
That’s incredibly petty and short-sighted. If anything, private hospitals should set up their own ambulance service and then bill the city for every patient who opts to go to a private hospital.
December 9, 2010 at 7:21 am