Private ambulance companies in Central New York and statewide are facing a bleak future that’s only been complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. TLC Ambulance has about 30 rigs and 130 EMT’s serving Auburn, Syracuse, and Cortland.
Director of Operations Lon Fricano says in addition to the added expenses for PPE, the state has issued a treat-in-place protocol for mildly ill patients.
"If there's no life threatening emergency, get them to stay home, talk to their private physician, maybe get some medication dropped off. That's good for the system in the sense that it takes the burden off hospitals that are overloaded. However, we don't get reimbursement for that. So, we're tying up an ambulance, we're tying up a crew."
Fricano says they only get reimbursed if they transport a patient to the hospital. But he says this is only the latest challenge facing the industry. Fricano says additional state mandates for equipment combined with low government reimbursement rates have strained ambulance companies for years.
"Many of our operations, especially in communties that have high Medicare and Medicaid populations, high numbers of senior citizens, maybe in some cases 70, 80, or more percent of those transports are being reimbursed at less than the cost of doing them in an ordinary day, without your pandemic."
Fricano says their call volume has also increased because full-time fire departments cut back on their response to EMS calls during the pandemic. He says financially, they're getting by...just barely. Fricano says he’s proud of his courageous, dedicated, highly skilled, stressed out…and under compensated EMT’s who risk their lives and that of their families to face COVID every day.
TLC is a member of the United New York Ambulance Network, which represents private ambulance operators across the state.
