By Alexandra Perloe
Sentinel & Enterprise
Copyright 2007 MediaNews Group, Inc. and Mid-States Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
FITCHBURG, Mass. — Lawyers for the city and MedStar Ambulance are still finalizing a contract that would let Fitchburg firefighters run an ambulance in the city, even after city councilors approved spending the money the contract purportedly promises.
The city’s fire chief and mayor, along with MedStar’s director, say the contract’s remaining details are minor.
MedStar would provide the ambulance vehicle and would charge patients, or their insurance, for the services.
The company would then pay Fitchburg a “guaranteed” $400,000 by June 30, 2008, according to Mayor Dan H. Mylott and Fire Chief Kevin D. Roy.
Of that, $360,000 would go to pay five firefighters’ salaries and the rest will go to the city’s general fund, Mylott said Thursday. These five firefighters will otherwise be laid off July 28, due to a budget shortfall.
MedStar will pay the same amount to Fitchburg regardless of how much money the ambulance actually brings in, said MedStar Director Nicholas Melehov in an interview Thursday.
City Councilor at-large Jay Cruz questioned whether MedStar is benefiting at Fitchburg’s expense.
“What is the city sacrificing, what are we giving up, for someone to come in and give us something for nothing?” Cruz asked his colleagues during a meeting Tuesday night. “No one does that.”
Melehov declined to say how much he expects MedStar will make. But both Mylott and Roy said they are aware MedStar will make a profit.
“This is not something for nothing,” Roy said Thursday.
He guessed MedStar, which is based in Fitchburg, will make three times more than it pays the city.
“I know they’re not breaking even,” Mylott said. “They need to make a profit; there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Fitchburg’s current ambulance contract -- with Chelmsford-based Patriot Ambulance -- dictates that Patriot set aside three Advanced Life Support ambulances dedicated to 911 calls in Fitchburg. The agreement with Patriot dates back to 1991.
But the agreement with MedStar -- which Roy said should be signed either today or Monday -- would transfer Patriot’s reigns to MedStar.
Three ambulances would still respond exclusively to emergencies in Fitchburg. But these would now be MedStar, not Patriot ambulances.
Two of these would be ALS trucks staffed by MedStar employees. One would be a Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance staffed by Fitchburg firefighters. This truck would even say Fitchburg on the side, Roy said.
He said about half of Fitchburg’s 911 calls are BLS, so two ALS ambulances should be enough, with the additional MedStar vehicles available as backup.
MedStar, a 7-year-old company, already has contracts with nursing homes and area hospitals, but doesn’t yet respond to 911 calls in Fitchburg unless all Patriot ambulances are occupied.
“We can’t call anybody but Patriot right now unless we run out of ambulances,” Roy said.
Melehov, the MedStar director, said the new arrangement would make for a “more seamless system,” especially when all three of the main ambulances are busy.
Another MedStar ambulance could respond to those calls, Melehov said.
This has already been the case, but has required communication between Fitchburg fire, MedStar and Patriot, rather than just between Fitchburg and MedStar, Melehov said.
The contract with MedStar will provide a “much bigger pool” of ambulances, Roy said.
Leominster already runs its own BLS ambulances, Melehov said, but they have a different arrangement than the one his company is preparing to reach with Fitchburg.
In Leominster, the city owns its own BLS-equipped vehicles.
But on calls requiring ALS, a MedStar ALS ambulance, staffed by paramedics, meets the Leominster vehicle at the scene. The paramedics treat, but don’t transport the patient.
Thus Leominster collects money directly and pays MedStar for the paramedics’ work.
The opposite would be the case in Fitchburg. MedStar would collect money and then pay Fitchburg.
The one-year agreement with MedStar gives Fitchburg a chance to test the waters with a city-run ambulance, and see risk-free how much money comes in.
“If it wasn’t that we were guaranteed the money, we could not do this. ... This is not a maybe, this is a guarantee,” Mylott said.
MedStar will pay the $400,000 throughout the year in monthly installments. Mylott said the agreement will run for a year, starting on a still-undetermined date in August. But all the payments will be made by the close of the fiscal year on June 30, the mayor said.
City councilors this Tuesday approved spending the $360,000 required to keep the five firefighters. Some were wary about approving the spending without seeing the ambulance contract, but all except Councilors at-large Cruz and Annie DeMartino ultimately accepted Roy and City Solicitor Deborah Phillips’ assurances that if the contract isn’t signed, no money will be spent.