Dear Tucker County Citizens,
As WV Senate Bill 429 makes its way through the WV State Legislature, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage the residents of Tucker County to contact their WV State Senators, and Delegates to encourage them to vote in favor of this bill. While no legislation is ever perfect, the ability to collect additional funding to support our EMS and Fire Departments is vital to our physical wellbeing and collective economic viability.
Stable funding of our emergency services is our number one barrier to being able to provide paramedic (ALS) and multiple crew EMS services to the residents and visitors of Tucker County. A large geographic service area, lack of a within-county hospital with emergency services and low population density all work against us when it comes to providing and funding timely EMS services. While we are doing what we can to contain and manage costs, the reality is that it costs a lot to be able to staff 24 x 7 x 365,two crew, EMS services.
Billing alone does not cover our service delivery costs. We are limited by what we can collect for these services by what the insurance companies consider usual and customary. (These rates are established for large metropolitan areas and not rural counties). The risks incurred by being the second EMS caller, when our duty crew is out on a previous call, should not be acceptable to the citizens of Tucker County. It happens much more often than what we should consider acceptable. Our crews are doing their best, using as much innovation as possible, to be able meet our ever-changing EMS needs.
We need your help. Please consider contacting Senators Randy Smith (randy.smith@wvsenate.gov), Jay Taylor (jay.taylor@wvsenate.gov) and Delegate John Paul Hott (johnpaul.hott@wvhouse.gov) to encourage them to support our EMS needs and to endorse SB 429.
Dennis Filler
Tucker County Ambulance Authority
Board President