It has been nearly a year to the day that Caritas shuttered two hospitals – St. John’s Queens and Mary Immaculate – and yet the fallout continues.
In what vice president Sean Graves calls a trickle-down of the closure – as well as a combination of other factors – the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps is now charging patients’ insurance companies for services rendered.
“We are one of the last [volunteer ambulance corp.] that started to do this,” said Graves, who noted the practice was instituted January 1 of this year. “We tried to hold out as long as possible.”
Those without insurance will not be charged.
Graves explained that the Corps’ operational budget is fluid and changes from year to year. Funding comes primarily from donations, grants and money from elected officials.
Combine a decrease in all three with an increase in call volume, and you end up with a “pretty grave” financial situation, he said – to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.
The 25-year-old explained to The Courier that they have “seen a dramatic decrease in funding from elected officials,” and that “it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get [grant] money, with more restrictions and oversight as to how the money is spent.”
Additionally, he said, “we’ve seen an increase in memberships – the more members we have the more it costs – and call volumes for this year.”
The Corps – which serves Woodhaven, Richmond Hill and Kew Gardens – is run by sisters Kathy Sexton-Dalbey and Kelly Sexton whose father, Timothy, founded it 45 years ago. It now has 65 members and in January responded to 45 calls, including 40 transports to local hospitals.
Graves said that the Corps owns its ambulance – thanks to former Senator Serphin Maltese – and the building where it is housed, at 78th Street and Jamaica Avenue. Most of the budget, he noted, goes to diesel fuel, supplies and maintenance. Insurance, he said, is “one of the greatest costs we have.”
But there is light at the end of the tunnel, it seems.
“I’m working with them to try and make it work,” said Assemblymember Mike Miller, who noted that billing insurance companies is a practice of the city and “pretty common for volunteer ambulance companies. “It’s a way to raise funding without charging recipients,” he said.
Miller said that he has already allocated member item monies to the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps, dependant on the budget being passed.
Additionally, he is trying to open a revenue stream by getting the Woodhaven Senior Center back in Woodhaven from Richmond Hill. They would house it at the Corps’ building and pay rent.
“We have an architect,” said Miller. “The Department for the Aging will then come in. I think in the long run it will work out fine.”
Maria A. Thomson, executive director of the Greater Woodhaven Development Corporation (GWDC), said that she is an advocate of the plan.
“The building itself serves a purpose,” she said, noting that the GWDC has hosted events there.
She also feels billing insurances makes sense.
“I think that in this day and age they should charge, and should have for a long time. If you get an ambulance through 9-1-1, you would have to pay. It is unfortunate that money has not materialized and this is a perfect way to make money, since the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps really do a public service in so many ways. ”
If you would like to help the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps, call 718- 296-7918.
