NYC to Charge Hospitals a Fee to Run Ambulances

[Alex Woo]

Below is the link to the Wall Street Journal Article. Along with my email to the writer.

Re: http://mobile2.wsj.com/device/article.php?CALL_URL=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703493504576007743046682606.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Mr. Saul,

I am very concerned about what the Mayor & NYC are going to do, come January 2012. For the 353 tours runned by the Voluntaries at $73,000 per tour, that's $25,769,000; NYC expects to receive from them on a yearly basis. That's a lot of revenue but its needless revenue if all Voluntaries pull out of 911 & NYC has to put out these units and tours.

Mayor Bloomberg plans to cover the tours if the Voluntaries pull out. There are 25 hospitals the FDNY EMS has agreements with, for them to run Ambulances. At $15/hr for 1 EMT to be on a Dual EMT Ambulance for 24hr, throughout the year. For 2 EMTs on the truck for the day, it costs $720. For the week, it costs $5,040. For the year, it costs $262,080. That's 1 unit on straight time; for 1yr.

Hypothetically, if all 25 Voluntary Hospitals ran 1 (BLS) Dual EMT Ambulance each and NYC wants to absorb the costs; it will be $6,552,000 for 25 BLS Units. But if there are 353 tours; pretending they are all BLS: it will cost NYC $92,514,240 a year to cover all the Voluntary tours.

Lastly, the advisors Bloomberg have on staff obviously do not have calculators. Get $25,769,000/yr in fees or spend $92,514,240/yr for salary alone. That's a lost of $66,745,240. How is this fiscually responsible, regarding the City's Budget?

Regards,

Alex Woo

[Chief1C]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703493504576007743046682606.html?mod=WSJ_NY_MIDDLELEADNewsCollection