Lack of EMS Volunteers a Pain in NJ Pocketbook

A shortage of volunteers to respond to emergency calls is prompting many North Jersey towns to resuscitate their ranks by paying professionals and private ambulance services to handle the calls.

But it's taxpayers who may end up sick. Increasing numbers of towns -- such as Paramus, Lodi and Little Ferry -- are hiring EMS (emergency medical service) employees to cover the day shift, when volunteers are scarce. Many volunteers still answer night and weekend calls.

Industry experts attribute the demise of EMS volunteers to the rigorous job demands, including a 120-hour-course, 48-hour refresher classes every three years and exhausting calls. To top it off, private EMS services often steal away volunteers who would prefer to get a check for performing the identical tasks.

Then, too, the skyrocketing cost of living and prevalence of dual-career couples have drained the ranks of many volunteer organizations, said Bill Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, which has sponsored legislation to boost ambulance volunteer recruitment.

Dressel urges local officials to revive their volunteer corps, rather than turn to expensive alternatives. "If we do away with the volunteer ambulance corps, it will wreak havoc on our already overburdened property owners," he cautioned.

Lodi residents were hit with a tax increase when borough officials spent $112,000 last year to run the borough's 15-member daytime crew, according to the local finance officer.

In an attempt to spend wisely, Little Ferry hired EMS employees who perform DPW work when not responding to emergency calls. They are paid $12 an hour from the municipal budget, said Borough Administrator Ken Gabbert. He was unsure if the hiring would raise taxes.

And Englewood Cliffs recently hired Holy Name Hospital's ambulance service to respond to daytime emergency calls ? paid for by third parties when a patient's insurance company foots the bill.

The Teaneck hospital joins Hackensack University Medical Center and several private ambulance companies that say they are much more in demand than they were five years ago.

"We've definitely seen an increase in interest in our services recently," said James Dickinson, regional vice president of LifeStar Response Corporation in Totowa, which has been hired by Totowa and Fair Lawn to bolster their volunteer squads, which lack daytime personnel.

The company also has contracts with the EMS dispatch systems in Bergen, Passaic, Morris and Essex counties, so that if volunteers are unable to respond, LifeStar sends one of its 40 crews, which operate around the clock, Dickinson said. LifeStar, which charges roughly $350 for an ambulance run, bills patients directly through medical insurance.

Some towns say the third-party billing system has worked to their advantage. Under that system, if the patient is uninsured, the contracted town covers the costs.

In Cliffside Park, the cost of running the eight-member, full-time EMS corps last year was $452,000, but the borough expects $300,000 in reimbursement from insurance companies.

"It's a big savings to our taxpayer from what we had three years ago, before we brought in third-party billing," said Frank Berardo, Cliffside Park's CFO.

Clifton's 16-member ambulance squad costs roughly $500,000 annually and the city receives over $1 million in insurance reimbursements, which it uses for emergency services, city officials said.

Some say all the talk about the demise of the volunteer ambulance corps is premature.

Sue Van Orden, president of the New Jersey First Aid Council, whose membership includes 398 volunteer squads around the state, said her group is trying to find ways to attract more volunteers. Bergen County property taxes are too high to burden residents by hiring private services, she cautioned.

"We've put together an aggressive recruitment and retention program. We've already been successful at getting more college students and young people to join," Van Orden said.