By Jack Minch
The Sentinel & Enterprise
LEOMINSTER, Mass. — The City Council on Monday approved funding for the new union contracts for firefighters valued at a total of $370,000 through this year, then approved changes to city ordinance for an increase in ambulance fees with a goal of staffing a second ambulance daily.
Firefighters had been without a contract since 2009.
The firefighters Local 1841 agreed to zero-percent increase for two years of a retroactive contract and a 2 percent increase for the third year that ended June 30.
They are getting a 3 percent increase in each year of the second three-year contract that started July 1 and runs through June 30, 2014.
“We were finally able to get the mayor to sit down and negotiate a new contract,” union President Craig Long said. “This was no easy task, but we were able to finally sit down and hammer out an agreement.”
Under the ordinance adopted Monday, the Fire Department will charge the standard Medicare reimbursement plus 150 percent to patients with commercial insurance.
“I think the 150 percent is a great improvement,” Sideleau said.
Private ambulance companies such as Medstar can charge anything they want, Sideleau said.
Patients will not feel the financial impact of the increase in ambulance rates since the insurance companies will be billed, Sideleau said.
The Fire Department previously charged ambulance patients who have commercial insurance the standard $365.73 that Medicare pays for senior citizens who receive treatment from EMTs, plus 40 percent.
Medicare pays about $434 for ambulance service that includes paramedics, but if a second ambulance is pushed into service it pays $628, Sideleau said.
There has not been a rate increase for ambulance service in several years.
Other area municipalities already charge up to 200 percent of the Medicare reimbursement and communities in the Boston area charge up to 400 percent.
It would cost about $280,000 annually to run a second ambulance 10 hours a day but the department should generate about $300,000 more annually by increasing ambulance rates, Long said.
There were more than 4,000 ambulance calls last year, and the number grows about 100 every year, Long said.
The city has a deal with Medstar to provide backup service if its ambulances are busy, but if the commercial ambulance company is not available, Fitchburg and Sterling fire departments provide help, Sideleau said.
“I do think it’s a good thing to have the rates raised and have the vision for an additional ambulance,” Ward 3 Councilor David Cormier said.
The department has a second ambulance it operates part time by using a firefighter from Engine 4 and the ladder truck from the Church Street headquarters, Sideleau said.
At-large Councilor James Lanciani supports the idea of a second ambulance.
“It’s something that sooner or later is going to happen, and the chief has sat and thought it out and it’s something that must happen,” Lanciani said.
Ward 4 Councilor Robert Salvatelli called the department’s ambulance a critical service.
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