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During Wednesday’s Village Council Public Meeting Mary Green and John Papietro, both members of local volunteer ambulance corps, objected passionately to the introduction of Ordinance #3098, which, if approved, will establish fees for Emergency Medical Service third party billing.
Under the proposed plan, patients’ insurance carriers would be billed $550 plus $0.10 per mile for transport services, and $125 for Emergency Medical response without transport.
Green and Papietro both cautioned Council members that implementing such a plan could make it even harder to recruit willing volunteer workers, and also create difficulty establishing mutual aid agreements with adjacent volunteer ambulance corps.
In addition to hearing comments on the issue from Green and Papietro, Council members were also chastised by a local officer of the New Jersey First Aid Council, who read off a list of approximately 25 reasons “not to transition from volunteer to paid” emergency medical service.
A public hearing on Ordinance #3098 will be held on Wednesday, February 13 during the Village Council’s regularly scheduled Public Meeting.
