Bob Hotchkiss, Southern Chester County Emergency Management Services (SCCEMS) CEO gave the organization's yearly municipal presentation Sept. 29 at Jennersville Regional Hospital.
"These 18 municipalities are serviced by the best EMS in the commonwealth," he said. Hotchkiss cited the state-of-the-art equipment as the reasons for its success.
Paramedics on the team have an average of nine years experience; individually experience ranges from four to 22 years, he said. With equipment including an advanced cardiac monitor, paramedics can treat patients.
SCCEMS has a portable ventilator, which provides air for patients who have cardiac obstructions. Paramedics fit the device's mask over the patient's nose and mouth, and the ventilator then forces air directly into the person's lungs, staff paramedic John Pierce said.
This method is not only less invasive than using an air tube, it also frees up the paramedic's hands so that he or she can attend to the patient more efficiently, Hotchkiss said.
Fifty-seven percent of the calls SCCEMS responsed to this year were life-threatening emergencies where the patient requires advanced life support.
"What jumped the most was Penn Township," he said. In 2005 Penn made up 12 percent of the calls SCCEMS responded to, whereas it constituted four percent of those calls five years ago. "Most of it is related to age-restricted developments. Age restricted developments are what impact us the most." In fact, the average age of patients that SCCEMS responds to calls from is 65.
Sources of revenue for SCCEMS include patients' insurance and Medicare, an annual fund drive, grants, equipment disposal and training fees, and municipal income, Hotchkiss said.
This year, SCCEMS's goal is to raise $290,000 from the 18 municipalities it serves, he said. Also, it's the first year the organization has had 100 percent participation from the municipalities.
Most of the funding from grants is used to purchase capital equipment. Other funding is used to pay the staff's salaries and benefits, professional fees, vehicle operating expenses, communications, supplies and training.
Funding is difficult to find. Insurance companies are decreasing reimbursement amounts and this year, Blue Cross Blue Shield held back payments.
Last month the SCCEMS ended "a one-year battle with Blue Cross Blue Shield," Hotchkiss said. The insurer refused to pay SCCEMS for services to its clients because "they didn't like how we coded our requests." But when SCCEMS asked Blue Cross Blue Shield to put its coding specifications in writing, as required by Pennsylvania State law, the insurer declined to do so.
"They wouldn't put it in writing till we went to the President of Blue Cross Blue Shield," Hotchkiss said. After receiving the proper coding instructions in writing, SCCEMS applied the codes to the outstanding bills and sent them to the insurer.
Another revenue problem is that the average reimbursement from Medicare is $100 per call, which means SCCEMS writes off about $800 per call from Medicare clients. That's a significant write-off since Medicare insures about 40 percent of the people whose calls to which SCCEMS responds.
According to Hotchkiss, SCCEMS is considering improving response time during peak hours by adding a vehicle and paramedic placing them at a strategic location in its service area. One possible location is the Oxford area, since so many calls come from the borough, he said.
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