Volunteer Sherburne Ambulance now billing for services

SHERBURNE – Starting the first day of February, the Village of Sherburne ambulance began billing patients for its volunteer services with the hope that by sometime this summer, the municipality will begin hiring paid staff for its medical crew, according to Mayor William Acee.

The Village of Sherburne decided to make the transition to a municipal-based ambulance service from a volunteer one in February of 2009, citing potential EMS man power shortages.

The transition will allow Sherburne to pursue a revenue recovery system, which will eventually help them to hire part-time or full-time personnel during difficult-to-cover daytime hours.

“Right now, the goal is to accumulate funds, then hire someone,” said Acee.

On Oct. 19, the Village of Sherburne Board passed a unanimous resolution to separate the ambulance service from the fire department, because state regulations prohibit billing services from being part of a volunteer fire organization. Since October, the Village of Sherburne Emergency Medical Service (EMS) has operated independently in anticipation of billing patients, explained Acee.

“I agree that we need to start charging those who use the ambulance and I agree that we can’t ask the volunteers for more daytime coverage. However, I feel we can provide a quicker response time and do it on a more cost effective basis without adding more cost to taxpayers by adding additional village employees. As we go forward, we will be watching this cost,” he said.

Acee said the village currently paid around $38,000 in annual operational costs associated with the ambulance in just maintaining equipment.

He said that a combination of increased burdens of mandated training for EMS personnel and the lack of new volunteers threaten to undermined the capabilities of the ambulance service, which prompted the village to step in.

“If locally we did not address the problem with our own fire department, we’d have to go outside the village and contract with someone like Norwich EMS or Cooperstown Medical Transport to meet our needs,” said Acee. “The board is committed to timely ambulance service and cost effectiveness.”