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Connecticut Aims to Save Illegal EMS Subscription Service
Aug. 27--STONINGTON -- For more than a half-century, the Westerly Ambulance Corps has let Pawcatuck residents buy an $35 annual subscription that pays for any costs not covered by a patient's own insurance.
But this spring, the corps discovered that Connecticut insurance law prohibits the practice and the nonprofit, volunteer organization was forced to discontinue the program and refund the subscription fees.
Now, Connecticut legislators plan to introduce a bill this fall that would allow the corps to once again offer the subscription.
First Selectman Ed Haberek said he met last week with ambulance officials along with State Rep. Steve Fontana, D-North Haven, and state Sen. Joe Crisco, D-17th District, who co-chair the legislature's insurance and real estate committee, as well as State Sen. Andrew Maynard, D-18th District, and State Rep. Diana Urban, D-North Stonington, to discuss the issue.
The $35 fee offers subscribers emergency and non-emergency transport within 100 miles when requested by police, a doctor or a 911 call. The corps then waives any balance not covered by the patients' insurance company. Haberek estimated about 1,000 Pawcatuck residents a year take advantage of the plan.
"People have been paying it for years. It's a longtime tradition in town. My family has subscribed and so have my parents," he said.
Since the suspension of the subscriptions, Haberek said he has heard from many residents who want it reinstated, including one man who said he was left with a $465 ambulance bill and a woman who drove her husband to the hospital because she was worried about the cost not being covered by their insurance company.
"We don't want people doing that," Haberek said.
Haberek said the plan is a perfect example of a way to lower health care costs for people at a time when the country is talking about universal health care.
But state law does not allow the ambulance company to sell subscriptions, because it is not an insurance company.
Ambulance officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
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