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Ambulance service may suffer Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Mercy Flights paramedic Chad Pisors and emergency medical technician Cheryl Rigiero respond to an auto accident in downtown Medford Thursday afternoon. Planned cuts in Medicare reimbursements could reduce income to Mercy Flights and other Jackson County ambulance providers by 20 percent - resulting in fewer paramedics and slower response time. Federal budget pares Medicare transport fees By BILL KETTLER Balancing the federal budget could mean you'll wait longer for an ambulance in Southern Oregon. Jackson County's three ambulance providers stand to lose 20 percent of their income if the federal government enacts a plan to reduce Medicare reimbursements for ambulance service. Cutbacks written into the federal Balanced Budget Act of 1997 could mean a $1 million revenue loss for Mercy Flights, Jackson County's largest ambulance service. The cuts ultimately could force the nonprofit ambulance company to scrap its helicopter ambulance, hire fewer paramedics and make do with older medical equipment, said Ken Parsons, Mercy Flights general manager. "In the long run," Parsons said, "people won't have the level of care they have now." The proposed reimbursement plan would pay local ambulance providers about $150 less than they currently receive for each Medicare patient they transport to a hospital. Medicare patients account for around 50 percent of all ambulance transports at Mercy Flights, 56 percent at Rogue River Rural Fire Department (which serves the area around Rogue River), and nearly 60 percent at Ashland Fire Department (which serves the Ashland area). "All of us are seeing the same crunch," said Ashland Fire Chief Keith Woodley. Parsons said an average ambulance trip costs about $630. The federal health insurance program for seniors now pays about $440, but the reimbursement would drop to $285. The fees originally were scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, but the Department of Health and Human Services postponed their implementation under pressure from Congress. The fees could take effect as early as July 1. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Hood River) said Wednesday that he, along with Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Eugene) and other legislators, will petition the Health Care Financing Administration to create a new reimbursement plan that includes adequate compensation for rural ambulance providers. "The federal government needs to pay its fair share for providing this service," Walden said in a telephone interview. "What may work in an urban setting may not work in a rural setting." Parsons said the reimbursement plan was drafted with the goal of equalizing Medicare ambulance compensation across the United States, but the researchers who created it did not account for the different ways that ambulance service is funded. Taxes fund ambulance service in some areas of the country, but in the Northwest, most ambulance providers get no tax money and charge a fee for the service. Some tax-supported ambulance services would actually gain income under the proposed new fees, Parsons said. In Jackson County, ambulance providers work in tandem with local fire departments to respond to medical emergencies. When an accident happens, emergency dispatchers send a local fire crew and an ambulance. If a patient needs hospitalization, the ambulance provides the transportation, freeing the fire crew to respond to any new medical emergency. Ambulance providers already have taken some steps to prepare for the cutbacks. Mercy Flights has asked the Jackson County Board of Commissioners to increase response time from 8 to 12 minutes in areas such as Central Point and Medford, where local fire departments have the equipment to treat heart-attack patients. Oregon law gives county commissioners responsibility for regulating ambulance service. Parsons said ambulance providers will be less likely to buy the latest medical equipment or stock ambulances with expensive new drugs because they will have less money to spend. They may also cut costs by staffing ambulances with one paramedic and one emergency medical technician, rather than two paramedics and an EMT. Paramedics have two years of training and earn more than EMTs. He said there are no easy ways to make up for the lost income. Raising ambulance rates for non-Medicare patients sounds like a plausible solution at first, but only about one patient in three now pays full fare. "We don't have a lot of people left to spread that increase around," he said. Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.