BABBITT— A proposal to form a regional ambulance service based out of the Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital is getting a cool reception from city officials here, and that could leave the proposal on life-support.
The plan, outlined in brief by representatives of the consulting firm SafeTech Solutions at a public presentation in Ely last month, suggested merging the Ely, Tower, and Babbitt ambulance services in an effort to stem financial losses being experienced by the services in Ely and Tower. The representatives of the consulting group now hope to bring their presentation to the Babbitt City Council at an upcoming meeting.
SafeTech Solutions was hired by the Ely hospital last year to develop options for sustaining ambulance service in the area. While SafeTech has yet to release their financial projections, the company’s representatives indicated that an ambulance merger could allow the Ely hospital to obtain a higher level of Medicare reimbursement from ambulance transports than area services currently receive. But that higher reimbursement level is only available to ambulance services operated by a critical access hospital that is located more than 35 miles from the nearest other ambulance service. While Ely’s hospital is designated as critical access, both the Tower and Babbitt ambulance services are significantly closer than that 35-mile limit, which would seem to preclude the higher reimbursements unless both services agree to the merger.
While some officials in Babbitt sound willing to listen to SafeTech’s proposal, comments from the city council’s July 2 meeting suggest that the consultants might have their work cut out for them.
“It would be foolish to join with them at this point in time,” said council member Joe White. “We’re probably one of the only departments in the area in the black, budget-wise.”
Council member Glenn Anderson sounded a similar note and questioned the proposal’s suggestion to post just one ambulance in Babbitt. “None of us on the council was ever contacted about this,” said Anderson. “When I read about it in the paper, I was like ‘no,’ but apparently they want to come in and explain it all.”
Council member Jim Lassi sounded the most optimistic about the proposal. “It looks really good on the surface,” he said. “I think it would behoove us to sit down and listen.”
But long-time ambulance director Mike Rhein expressed skepticism. “I don’t see anything good coming from this, for us,” he said.
The council set no date for a sit-down with the SafeTech consultants, although they agreed it would best be done as part of a study session, rather than a council meeting.
Financial figures sketchy
During last month’s presentation, the SafeTech consultants said their proposal would leave area ambulance services largely in the black, although some level of local financial support might still be needed. Yet the consultants never released a detailed spreadsheet that outlined the costs and anticipated revenues of their proposal, although a summary put the cost of maintaining four ambulances with a paramedic and an EMT at $4.06 million. The revenue projections were less clear based on their presentation.
The Timberjay has requested detailed financial projections from the hospital, but hospital CEO Patti Banks indicated that data privacy and HIPAA regulations prevent her from releasing the projections. “Any financial assumptions were gathered by SafeTech and based on national statistical averages,” said Banks.
While the SafeTech proposal cited higher Medicare reimbursement as key to the financial success of their model, Banks said she was unable to specify how much more revenue might be generated from the higher reimbursement, which would be based on 101-percent of the cost of providing the service. “Cost-based reimbursement is complex, so I am unable to approximate the difference,” said Banks.
While city officials in both Babbitt and Tower have expressed a willingness to hear more about the proposal, Banks said there isn’t more information to share than what has already been provided. “Conversations will be to decide if the communities are willing to move forward with a regional approach,” she said. “Then next steps will be determined.”