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ALBANY
Schumer urges Medicare ambulance funding boost
BY JAMES SCHLETT Gazette Reporter

   Low Medicare payments to Capital Region ambulance providers are preventing them from investing in life-saving technology and training, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer declared Tuesday.
   Accusing the federal government of shortchanging ambulance providers such as Mohawk Ambulance Service in Schenectady and Empire Ambulance Services in Cohoes, the New York Democrat unveiled legislation that would increase Medicare ambulance funding regionwide by $1.3 million.
   Schumer’s announcement follows a Government Accountability Office report in May that found ambulance providers that transport Medicare patients are reimbursed on average 6 percent below the cost of that service.
   “Every commercial ambulance in the country is getting squeezed,” said Michael Aquino, the chief operating officer of Empire Ambulance, which has a 12-ambulance fleet and 104 employees.
   The reimbursement local ambulance providers now receive is based on a national fee schedule set in 2002. The reimbursement shortfalls hinder ambulance companies’ ability to invest in equipment, such as global satellite tracking and mapping devices, continuous positive airway pressure devices and resuscitation ventilators, according to Schumer.
   Medicare transports account for up to 45 percent of Empire Ambulance’s business.
   “You’re really strapped to do the things you want to do,” said Empire Ambulance Chief Operating Offi cer Michael Aquino.