velcroMedic1987

Typically "hard" billing employs multiple attempts to collect from the applicable insurance company and patient directly and turning the account over to a collection agency if it goes unpaid. "Soft" billing is when the local agency sends the bill to the insurance company and accepts what they pay without follow-up or collection.

Completely missing the point.

More bandaids...

Different articles are reporting entirely different stories and if you read the comments it would seem that none of them are accurate. LOL

I don't know about out of state plates but IIRC you have to have your vehicle registered and inspected (DMV inspection) before NYS will do the EMS inspection. My recollection is a little fuzzy but I seem to remember our agency trying to get a new vehicle into service and EMS wouldn't inspect it until it had plates and an inspection (I don't know if there was a temporary inspection or not). I don't think dealer plates can be used on an ambulance (working) either but as always I could be mistaken.

Point taken. Pick an agency that doesn't have the CON and you see the point. Thanks for the clarification.

The way DOH has made EMS operate makes this is a big deal. Suppose Empress went to a stand-by at a Newburgh HS football game because that's who "Newburgh wanted", would that be OK with MLSS or anyone else with the CON to operate in Orange County? Suppose Gramma likes TransCare but lives in New Windsor. Can she call them to take her to St. Luke's just because that's who she wants? No, in the eyes of DOH she cannot. The CON process sucks, it's antiquated and doesn't foster competition but that's the law so we should abide by it. As soon as we start picking and choosing what laws we follow we are no better than Congress or the President.

My partner just picked up one of these Baofeng things - I was happy cause I thought he was bringing chinese food to work - boy was I disappointed. Anyone have a user friendly programming guide for them. He is having a big-time problem trying to get it to work. LOL Serves him right.

No, MLSS does NOT have a CON to operate in Westchester County. All they would have to do is contact an agency with a CON for Westchester County and they could use that agency for the entire motorcade route in the County. I think the point is that MLSS knows where they can and cannot operate but took this gig anyway. Probably for the PR.

It wouldn't be that much different if he died of cancer or a heart attack. His fame as an actor and comedian is what's driving most of the attention and over time it will subside and eventually almost everyone will just forget. Just like they forget other tragedies and even events like 9/11. It's just human nature. As for the term "emotionally disturbed person", why is that wrong or hurtful. It's an accurate description used to characterize people's behavior and/or symptoms. What's the alternative? Is this just a "PC" response?

This is like the problem with education. Let's give them credit for getting a 50% on the test. You still got 50% WRONG! Peekskill is indeed not a ticking time bomb but let's stop throwing pats on the back around and ask the hard questions. Are they meeting the standrards (NFPA1720)? No? Then FIX it!!! And Peekskill has had dedicated ALS since 1997 so it is far longer than several years and Peekskill VAC has been paying EMT's for years to help reduce the response times. It's not about the Chiefs, Officers or members. It's about the patients and taxpayers.

It fits so they clearly took measurements. I always laugh when they get to the house with the new toy only to find out that it doesn't fit. Then all of a sudden the firehouse renovatIon (or replacement) becomes a big issue. "We can't leave the new truck out in the elements without a 275,000 square foot, three story, nine bay, state of the art house to put it in". LOL

Funny, someone sent me this but wouldn't post it themselves. Some more info about CPRP. paramedicfinal3.5.14.pdf

Not just the PD frequencies. FCC regulations require you to be licensed to transmit on any public safety frequency. But as someone said, they will sell you anything and the real crime of it is that people will program your radios with frequencies without ever asking to see a license. Just show me the money. And self programmable radios make it almost impossible to deal with. There's no middleman anymore like the companies that sell/program radios.

As it was explained to me, the CON initially went with "Town of Cortlandt and City of Peekskill and all political subdivisions within the Town of Cortlandt" or something like that. That's when Croton balked because they were using Ossining for ALS. So it got changed to Cortlandt, Peekskill and Buchanan. It probably could have been just Town of Cortlandt/City of Peekskill but Buchanan was spelled out too. Maybe because they had someone on the ALS advisory board. I remember seeing notices of the public hearing back then. Rosemary Boyle, Town Councilwoman, led that board working with McGurty, Lieberman, Filangeri to get the program up and running. It was just a single medic truck initially but I believe they carried two sets of gear so they had the potential to cover second calls. They knew from the start that a single medic was going to be busy from geography to volume but that's what the politics and funding would allow at the time. It wouldn't surprise me if the folks involved don't want to comment. No good comes of it and there are a lot of EMTB haters out there who don't want anything discussed about their agency on here.

So it is closer to 50% of the agencies in the county are paying people for coverage. If they did an analysis and staffed according to volume and response times instead of antiquated, arbitrary jurisdictional boundaries, there would probably be a great improvement in the level of service provided with no increase in costs. If an agency pays for one EMT and can't get the second crewmember, they're really just pissing away money. Too bad there is no oversight in EMS. NYS BEMS is a toothless tiger and the regional EMS councils don't do anything.

According to some friends that were among the "first" medics in Cortlandt, the Town and hospital collaborated to start the program and there was an ALS advisory board that included Peekskill and Buchanan. The initial CON application was for the Town of Cortlandt, City of Peekskill, and Village of Buchanan. I'm told that the very first draft application was for the entire town including Croton but they objected so it was changed to the above. Peekskill was involved from the very start but didn't contribute very much to start the program. The City became more involved after the system was up and running for a couple of years and added the 39 medics via the FD. The initial paramedics all had the costs of the training paid by the program in exchange for their service as medics. None of the initial medics were paid. There were about 20 of them and they precepted with medics from Rockland Paramedic Services so they could get some experience with the supervision of a veteran medic.

I don't believe that it is covered by the VAC license unless it is owned by the VAC, on the frequency(-ies) licensed, and reported on the license (it usually lists the number of base radios and portables right on the license). The scanner/car issue has been discussed here before by some people with knowledge and experience on the subject. Maybe you can search for that thread. Do these individuals have ham radio licenses? If these are truly ham radios the operators need to be licensed by the FCC. And, if they're programming police frequencies, they may be crossing into an even more gray area. If they don't have permission to be on the police frequency, they could find themselves in trouble if they use the radios on those frequencies. Of course there are no FCC police and unless they do something boneheaded nobody will probably ever know.

You can't use EMS runs to justify your existence while at the same time saying they're less important than fire calls. If a resource is out of service on a call, it is out of service on a call. It shouldn't be ranked by whether it was a fire call or an EMS call. The root of the problem is - as it has been for far longer than the ALS program has been in existence - that there is only ONE guy on each engine. Maybe if the volunteers were allowed to drive this would be less of an issue.

What does this have to do with grants? Have you aired these concerns to the department/officers/committee/commissioners?

More than a third of these agencies use paid personnel to insure they have a crew. Feel free to correct/update info.

What if? What if? What if? You can "what if" things to death and the bottom line always seems to be we respond to the call we have. We don't decline to respond so we can remain available for the call that we MAY get. What if Engines 131 and 134 are on another FIRE call when your hypothetical structure fire comes in across town? Does it matter that the call is EMS or FIRE? It shouldn't. It's still our customer calling for help.

We were dumb too but there were no video cameras or YouTube!

As I understood it, and this may have changed some, the City of Peekskill, Town of Cortlandt, and Village of Buchanan all contribute to support the ALS program and it is a regional approach. So Peekskill taxpayers should know (if they bother to become educated/informed) that they are part of a regional system. If a medic is tied up on a BLS call, another medic from the system or mutual aid would handle a subsequent call. That's nothing new or unique.

Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!! Implement a plan that would consolidate school districts, fire districts, and other feifdoms? Never happen!