By EMS1 Staff
DENVER, Colo. — Employees of a Denver-area ambulance company were fired without warning and are owed thousands of dollars in back pay.
KDVR reported that a company attorney said Citywide Ambulance shut down after owing money to Medicare and Medicaid, and employees were suddenly left without a job.
“Without notice, we’re shut down. We had to strand patients at their appointments. Dialysis, whatever they were at, and told we could not return them. Everybody had to come back to base and we were terminated,” dispatcher and senior EMT Andrew Bullock said.
The terminations occurred at several company locations, with almost 100 employees impacted.
“We came in Friday hoping to get our paychecks and do our jobs as normal, and we’re told that we couldn’t return here. We couldn’t get our patients. We weren’t going to get paid. And for all of us, it left a lot of us in tears,” EMT Emily Guzzo said.
Some employees were owed as much as two months’ pay.
Patients were stranded without warning, and all of the employees said they hope they understand that the EMS providers had nothing to do with it.
“We got into this field to help people and not just leave them stranded,” Bullock said.
Attempts to reach the owner have been blocked, and the office door locks have been changed.
“Out of the blue, get blindsided and have it shut its doors and kick us to the curb so to speak. Mismanagement is the only thing I can think of. Where the funds went, we’re not sure,” Bullock said.