Baker City FireMed memberships to be refunded

Ian Crawford, Baker City Herald, Ore.
·2 min read

Jul. 5—The Baker City Council's decision to have the fire department cease ambulance service Oct. 1 is already affecting residents who have bought memberships in FireMed.

That program, which is part of the Life Flight network, pays for members' ambulance rides or emergency medical flights, or both, for those who buy a dual membership.

Starting Oct. 1, the Baker City Fire Department will no longer operate ambulances or participate in the ground ambulance portion of the program.

Local subscribers recently received mailed notices about the pending change.

Baker City Manager Jonathan Cannon estimated that approximately 2,000 local residents are FireMed members.

Baker City members will continue to have Life Flight coverage under their existing memberships, according to Ian Philips of Life Flight.

He said no new contracts are required and customers needn't take any additional steps to ensure LifeFlight coverage.

The situation is different, though, for ground ambulance coverage.

Baker City will send refunds to people who have FireMed ground ambulance coverage, the amount depending on the length of their membership after Oct. 1, when the city will stop operating ambulances.

Until then, FireMed subscribers will have their ambulance bill paid if they are transported by a Baker City Fire Department ambulance.

But that's not the case for residents who are taken by an ambulance owned by Metro West, the Hillsboro company that Baker County commissioners have contracted with to replace the Baker City Fire Department as the ambulance provider for the Baker Ambulance Service Area, which includes Baker City and about two-thirds of the rest of the county.

(Metro West will also cover the Huntington Ambulance Service Area in the southeast part of the county.)

Metro West, which has been operating an ambulance in Baker City and the rest of the Baker Ambulance Service Area since early June, is not part of the FireMed system. Metro West is the "first call" ambulance, which means a Baker City Fire Department ambulance, which is still covered by FireMed, will respond only if the Metro West ambulance is already on a call.

From June 16 through July 5, Metro West transported 52 patients to Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City, while the Baker City Fire Department transported 13 patients.

Metro West does have a separate membership program similar to FireMed that covers ground ambulance transports. It's called LifeGuard, and according to a letter from J.D. Fuiten, Metro West president and owner, the company will offer LifeGuard memberships to Baker County residents for $59 per year, which covers ground ambulance transports "anywhere in Oregon."

But currently Metro West does not have its membership service available here, as Cannon noted in a July 1 memo to city employees that's also available on the city's website, bakercity.com.