News, Press, Acadian Ambulance, California Ambulance Association, Empress EMS, Washington Examiner
By AAA Staff on May 26, 2020 08:38 am
Ambulance services getting crushed by being roped into virus response By David Hogberg Ambulance companies are suffering major financial losses in the coronavirus pandemic because of an interaction between state government regulations and Medicare payment policy. In an effort to combat hospital overcrowding during the coronavirus pandemic, states have required ambulances to treat patients at home if possible. Yet Medicare only reimburses ambulances when they transport a patient to a hospital, and most private insurers follow Medicare’s lead. This Catch-22 has cut deeply into ambulance companies’ revenues during the pandemic. Continue reading this article that features interviews with AAA members Empress EMS, Acadian Ambulance, and the California Ambulance Association!
News, Operations, Press, coronavirus, COVID-19, New York Times
By AAA Staff on May 26, 2020 07:57 am
The staggering American death toll from the coronavirus, now approaching 100,000, has touched every part of the country, but the losses have been especially acute along its coasts, in its major cities, across the industrial Midwest, and in New York City. The devastation, in other words, has been disproportionately felt in blue America, which helps explain why people on opposing sides of a partisan divide that has intensified in the past two decades are thinking about the virus differently. It is not just that Democrats and Republicans disagree on how to reopen businesses, schools and the country as a whole. Beyond perception, beyond ideology, there are starkly different realities for red and blue America right now. Continue reading►
News, Patient Care, Press, coronavirus, COVID-19, New Jersey, New York, New York Times
By AAA Staff on May 26, 2020 07:43 am
Psychologists say anxiety and uncertainty prompt irrational decisions — like turning down a transplant when an organ becomes available. …In Newark, emergency medical services teams made 239 on-scene death pronouncements in April, a fourfold increase from April 2019. Fewer than half of those additional deaths could be attributed directly to Covid-19, said Dr. Shereef Elnahal, president and chief executive of Newark’s University Hospital… From the New York Times►
Government Affairs, News, Press, State-Level Advocacy, coronavirus, COVID-19, EMS as essential service, Iowa
By AAA Staff on May 26, 2020 05:49 am
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa—As the coronavirus pandemic continues to unfold, Iowa’s first responders say the state should no longer hold off on declaring Emergency Medical Services an essential service. That status is something EMS workers in Iowa have sought long before COVID-19. Being declared “essential” would require ambulance service across the state, instead of relying on a patchwork of volunteers, agencies and providers. Continue reading at Public News Service►
BOSTON (CBS) — Fifty ambulances traveled from Worcester’s UMass Medical Center to Boston’s Fenway Park Wednesday in a show of appreciation for paramedics, EMTs and 911 dispatchers. It’s all part of a local celebration of National EMS Week. Continue reading on Boston’s WBZ4►
