DPS, CHC in tug of war over ambulance fees

Even though the Department of Public Safety runs the fleet of ambulance vans used by the Commonwealth Health Center to respond to emergency cases outside the hospital, the $300 charged for each run does not go to the department.

Rep. Oscar M. Babauta yesterday pledged to correct the existing set-up between DPS and CHC regarding the use of these vehicles, saying portion of the money should go to maintenance and repair of ambulance vans.

“We should seriously look into the issue so that DPS is not shortchanged by the funds that CHC is collecting from the ambulance run,” he said in an interview.

The move followed yesterday’s oversight hearing on the department which was conducted by the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations in efforts to assist DPS in addressing concerns on public safety and conditions of its facilities.

Babauta maintained that it would be unfair for DPS if they don’t get their share of the fees and charges that amount to at least $6,000 a day as CHC receives daily emergency calls of 10 to 20 times.

He added a memorandum of understanding forged years ago by the two government agencies also does not deal with medical supplies provided by the DPS.

“If that is the case, we will pursue a legislation to help out DPS retain all if not some of the fees that people are charged everytime they use ambulance,” the representative said.

The House may also broker a meeting between DPS and CHC officials to discuss the issue “so that once and for all we will get a clear cut policy in terms of the ambulance usage and how fees are being assessed,” according to Babauta.

Public Safety Commissioner Charles Ingram declined to comment on the issue when asked by reporters after the hearing, but said the $300 fee could be used by his department to maintain these emergency vans.

“If I could get the money from the general funds, — and even CHC does not get the money — if it went into our account, then we could be making repair and we could buy more equipment,” he said.

Clyde Norita, assistant police chief for special programs who has been with the department for several years, stressed this arrangement has existed even before he came to DPS.

He told the hearing that the government hospital charges the department every time they bring in an inmate for medical check-up or for health screening.

“Even if we were to defray the costs of that, CHC would still owe us a lot of money,” Norita said.

“We need to look at it carefully,” Norita said in an interview after the hearing, “so that CHC and DPS sort out some kind of understanding on costs that we both incur and from there figure out how to eliminate those costs or equalize those costs based on our services that we provide to them and the services they provide to us.”

He, however, did not agree that the Legislature need to intervene, saying lawmakers should allow DPS and CHC to iron out the problems.

“We have been addressing it, but we need to really figure out what needs to be paid and what needs to be absorbed,” Norita added.