|
American Legion Ambulance Company Cutting Back on Ambulances |
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, 23 January 2008 |
|
American Legion Ambulance Company is cutting back on the number of
ambulances it puts on the roads in Amador and CalaverasCounties.
Al Lennox, President of American Legion Ambulance, says the company’s call
volume and revenues are down about 15%. Lennox
blames the drop in call volumes on the economy. “There’s less tourism, and less
travel on the roads,” he told TSPN. More Medi-Cal ambulance patients are
reducing reimbursements for services, Lennox
says, “and we’re seeing more and more people who have been laid off and have no
health insurance at all.” Lennox says in the first 6 months of his fiscal year, the
company ran a deficit – had they continued with no cost correction, the
ambulance service would have shown a deficit of $150,000 for the year. Lennox says he has informed the supervisors of both
Amador and Calaveras of the force reduction of about 15%. No one has been laid
off – Lennox says they’ve shifted some full
time to part time workers and some part-timers to per diem work. “This is the
best way to adjust to the drop in revenue, with the least impact on 9-1-1
calls,” said Lennox.
|