Meyersdale ambulance meeting looks at ways to continue services strong

MEYERSDALE ― A local ambulance service is looking for help.

Meyersdale Area Ambulance Association (MAAA) serves nine municipalities in the southern Somerset County area with a budget of about $580,000. It provides services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as a nonprofit entity without state and federal funding.

Hitting roadblocks

And, while there is no need to hit the panic button just yet even though several other area ambulance services have closed in recent years, Ken Marteney, president of MAAA and a medic on staff, wants to be proactive by getting the word out that the Meyersdale longtime service has hit some roadblocks.

That's why a public meeting attended by county and local officials was held at the Meyersdale Elks Thursday evening in order to come up with plans to steer clear of those roadblocks or at least bypass them somehow.

"The top priority has always been the treatment of the patients in our coverage area at the highest level possible," said Marteney. "The correct crew level would be Advanced Life Support (ALS) 24 hours a day but we are not able to do that. Since January 2022 we have lost one full-time and several part-time paramedics. So when the renewal form for the Pennsylvania Department of Health EMS service application was completed prior to our inspection, we answered the question 'do we respond to all calls at the highest level' as 'no.' We respond by the highest crew level we have available."

More: Where residents, first responders can learn more about Sept. 11 health-related compensation

Lack of crew members

The current crew allows for three to four days a week coverage ALS paramedic level with the remainder of the time being covered by advanced EMT. The correct crew would be ALS 24 hours a day, but that is currently not possible.

The lack of ALS coverage could impact the ambulance service's license in the future. From Jan. 1, 2022, until Oct. 31, 2023, Meyersdale Ambulance has answered 2,652 calls or an average of 3.9 calls per day. The total coverage hours needed for that time period is 16,056 with only 12,392 or 77% coverage ALS call volume.

"Employing more paramedics to ensure 24 hours per day coverage is our goal," Marteney said. "This issue is being addressed. We are looking to hire potentially two paramedics in the next two months. We have also started planning with local municipalities and other ambulance services for better future coverage. Challenges are the cooperation of all stated entities with major roadblocks to include legal, monetary and organizational planning."

Dedicated staff, but not enough funds

During the public meeting, state Sen. Pat Stefano thanked the emergency services for its dedication and spoke of ways that the General Assembly is moving in the direction to help combat their current roadblocks.

"Over all this time you are finding that the perfect storm has occurred – shortage in staffing and not enough money to recruit enough people," Stefano said. "Training levels are so high, costs are increasing, regulations are increasing, the equipment you have to carry and the skill level is increasing. So, all these are increasing and we are not even getting into the fuel prices but the reimbursement rates have not. The revenue coming in never covers the costs and at times you go out on a call only to have your services refused and all that revenue is lost."

He said Confluence Ambulance was shut down for answering questions 'no' about coverage of hours just as Meyersdale had recently done on Pennsylvania Department of Health licensure.

"Confluence got shut down because they answered questions truthfully," Stefano said. "I'd rather have nine to 10 hours of service and lose a few than have none."

More: Making the county and state EMS priorities mesh

House Bill 1351 won't fix problem

Stefano said House Bill 1351 Act 15 2023, a fiscal code bill, went into effect Oct. 23 as part of the budget. It doubles the mileage rate from $4 a mile to upward of $8 and also changes Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates for ambulance services. He said that while it won't "fix the problem," it helps.

Stefano also mentioned Senate Bill 501, which just came out of committee in October and would create an authority on the county level in order to create a funding source for struggling ambulance services across the state. Inclusion into that county-wide system would be voluntary.

As far as a county-wide authority, Meyersdale Ambulance is already headed in that direction with Somerset Area Ambulance. While nothing has been decided yet, Meyersdale approached Somerset in May of this year with both boards agreeing to research a movement forward to possibly merge operations pending legal counsel.

Marteney said at Boswell and Port Matilda, for example, they ran out of people and ran out of money and had to close. He wants to make sure that doesn't happen in Meyersdale.

No steady funding sources

Marteney said that of the $580,000 budget, about 98% comes from insurance reimbursements and that there are no steady funding sources on the state, county or local level. There is a membership drive but that doesn't cover the increased costs.

Marteney also said that not every call is reimbursed and not everyone has insurance, but the ambulance service doesn't ask those kinds of questions when someone is in need. They just go.

"It takes $356 to roll out the door. That includes wages, gas, worker's compensation, everything," Marteney said. "The last ambulance we purchased four years ago was $147,000. And, what we are saying is we can have the best equipment in the world, but if we don't have enough people to operate it, it's useless. We need more EMTs through training with encouragement at the high school level or the tech center."

More: Top vote-getters in municipal election are ready to go to work

Rolling ER saves patients

Joel Landis, EMA director of Somerset County Department of Emergency Services, added that a ride on the ambulance isn't just a ride to the hospital anymore.

"It's a rolling ER with the ability to save that patient on this end before they get to the other end when they arrive at the hospital. This is one of the reasons why people are living longer, because the quality of medical care starts with EMS," he said.

The staff and board at Meyersdale Ambulance include Kristin Martin, secretary; Karla Walker, vice president; Ken Marteney, medic and president; Amanda Teets, board; Butch Walker, board; Sabrina Caton, EMT and board; Jon Marteney, board; Charles Sandy, EMT and board; Mary Libengood, board; Urias Peachey, EMT; Amanda Enos, EMT; Fred Wooley, paramedic; Brad Maust, paramedic; Riley Whitfield, EMT; Mandy Marteney, treasurer and EMT; Rebecca Horner, paramedic; Jeannette Romesberg, EMT; and Brandon Miller, EMT.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Longtime Meyersdale ambulance service has hit a roadblock