Billing for Ambulance Service Talks Continue

The possibility of
First discussed last week, the idea would mean Riverhead Town would bill insurance companies for ambulance services.

Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter said the idea needs to be "fast tracked," because if it's going to come to fruition, it would need to be a part of the coming year's budget.

Deputy Town Attorney Dan McCormick was onhand at Thursday's town board work session to discuss four legal points that need to be addressed, including the fact that under town law, only the town board is able to set a schedule of fees.

Also, he said, any monies generated would belong directly to the town's ambulance district and could not be used to offset the town's general fund.

Other facets of the plan were discussed, including what would happen to individuals without insurance. 

Councilman John Dunleavy said there might be some resistance from the town’s volunteer ambulance corps, because someone might need to be hired to handle billing.

“It is more clerical work, but we’re leaving a huge amount of money on the table that the taxpayer should be collecting,” Walter said. “Nobody likes change, but if we sit down and talk to them, and say there’s something in this for you, too, that’s the way to handle it.”

A meeting with Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance members will be set up in the next week, Walter said.

One idea is to offer incentives, Walter said. “Maybe there are things they can’t pay for now, and we could use some of this money to pay -- I think that would be welcome.”
Councilman John Dunleavy mentioned that it’s critical to recruit some volunteers from Jamesport; although a barn and ambulance exist there, there are not enough volunteers to respond in an emergency.

“It takes 20 minutes to get to Jamesport, maybe a half hour to get to Manorville. This is concern over public safety,” Dunleavy said.

One resident told him recently that they were able to travel faster by car from Hampton Bays to Peconic Bay Medical Center than the ambulance responding. “I think there’s something wrong,” he said.

Walter said the hope is to build a new emergency responder facility at Enterprise Park at Calverton and said perhaps a paid employee could be hired for that site and for Jamesport, should this plan proceed.

In the coming week, Walter said a meeting will be set up with ambulance volunteers and also, details will be made clear about whether a request for proposals is necessary.

“If we’re going to do this, we need to do it very quickly,” he said.