SALEM, Ore. — The city of Salem is considering cutting ties with the private ambulance company providing services in the city and doing the job themselves.
Since 2015, Salem has contracted with Falck Northwest. Their contract ends in July 2025, at which time the city is considering replacing the company.
"Quite frankly, it's not working," said Salem Fire Chief Mike Niblock during Monday’s Salem City Council meeting.
Niblock said Falck hasn't been meeting response standards. He also summarized why it would make financial sense for the city to take over ambulance services as a source of revenue.
"Operating costs for this system are about $10 million a year," Niblock said. "We're going to have $12 million in revenue, plus the GEMT, so that's $16 to $17 million in revenue."
The GEMT stands for the Ground Emergency Medical Transportation Services program. Back in 2016, lawmakers passed House Bill 4030 to allow the program, which lets government agencies recoup some of the ambulance billing limits Medicare sets for its patients.
"For us, for last year's numbers that's about $4.3 million in revenue that we're leaving on the table," Niblock said.
The fire department indicated their motives for taking over ambulance services are not all financial. Niblock explained that over the last two-and-a-half years, Falck has struggled to meet their weekly 1,030-hour contractual service obligation. Those findings were noted in a recent study commissioned by the fire department. Niblock said in recent weeks, Falck has on occasion only managed between 600 and 700 hours.
In 2021, Salem fire began staffing up to two of their own ambulances to help meet the city's ambulance response needs. Niblock said that supplemental service is on track to cost the city $2.2 million dollars in overtime in 2024, a frustrating prospect for the firefighters' union.
"Falck ambulance has been subsidizing their business on the backs of my members with your money for 27 months," said Matt Brozovich, president of Salem Firefighters Local 314. "Enough is enough."
Falck Northwest said they only learned about the fire department’s recommendation to move ambulance services in-house last week.
"This report was not shared with us and was not a collaborative effort. It has been rushed to council without proper vetting," said Falck Northwest Regional Managing Director, David Patterson. "We simply want to be able to compete for the right to be your partner next year and are open to discussing system design changes, but we have to be included."
Salem City Council agreed that they would need more time to consider the ambulance services proposal. They tabled the discussion until March 25, at which time city leaders said they would likely vote on it.