Member decline alarms Pa. EMS unit!!!

July 28, 2009 02:24 AM

The Patriot

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Dolores Heimbaugh is proud to care for her ailing, 85-year-old husband. But the Susquehanna Twp. woman is also quick to credit the help she gets from Susquehanna Twp. Emergency Medical Service.

“I love those EMS,” said Heimbaugh, 78. “I can’t say enough for them. I want them to know it, and I hope they read it. “

STEMS regularly transports Jay Heimbaugh to doctors’ appointments, and when a tube draining his kidney fell out recently, they whisked him to the hospital, Heimbaugh said.

But unless more township residents become STEMS members like the Heimbaughs, the ambulance service could fold in three to five years, township Commissioner Fred Engle warns.

The STEMS annual membership drive — $35 for individuals, $50 for families — begins next week. Last year, only 1,956 households — from the 12,500 solicited in STEMS’ service territory of Susquehanna Twp., Paxtang, and Penbrook — subscribed, business manager Beth Leonard said.

Members contribute only $47,000 to the $1 million budget, down from $90,000 several years ago, Leonard said. Nonemergency medical transports provide about 15 percent of the budget, said Executive Director Ray Barth, but the declining membership is eroding the financial base.

Hospital transport for a patient with chest pains can cost up to $1,000, and insurance companies can reimburse $200, Leonard said. For STEMS members, the company accepts the insurance as full payment. Nonmembers are billed for the balance, but only about 40 percent of those bills are paid, board Chairman Richard “Doc” Bronstein said.

“The little bit that we charge for the subscription can be recouped and back in their pocket with one service,” Leonard said. “That essentially is the money that helps to keep us here.”

Membership has fallen because many people mistakenly believe that the service gets funds from a new state tax with the initials EMS, Barth said.

Susquehanna Twp. pays for fuel and insurance, but somebody, the township or residents, needs to do more, Bronstein said.

“Lower Paxton gives a much larger amount to their EMS,” Bronstein said. “So does Lower Swatara.”

Commissioner Frank Lynch, budget committee chairman, said the township pays $63,000 a year for fuel and insurance and bought a new ambulance three years ago.

“We always look for ways to support them, and right now, we’re wholly supporting their membership drive,” Lynch said. “If you want to have a thriving, dependable EMS service in Susquehanna Twp., you have to pony up and become a member.”

STEMS is paying off two newer ambulances that replaced old units “held together by duct tape and a prayer,” said Engle, and other equipment is aging. If voluntary contributions keep declining, the township could impose an EMS tax, he said.

“It would be small in nature and most likely would not cost any more than a family membership,” Engle said. “The benefit is we won’t lose EMS, and at least residents would get an automatic membership.”

Dolores Heimbaugh said she’ll always be a member, and she has a message for other residents.

“I say you better get it because the older you get, the more you need them,” Heimbaugh said. “You never know. Even young, you have accidents. When I call, they come right away. They say, ‘Dolores, we’ll be right there.’”