MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Voters in Monongalia County are being asked to approve a levy next Tuesday that will support Mon EMS.
Mon EMS Executive Director Forest Weyen said all residents deserve trained, properly equipped professionals prepared to respond emergencies in any area of the county at any time.
“We need to have EMS professionals to be decently compensated, in safe stations with the proper equipment down the road waiting for an emergency to happen,” Weyen said Tuesday on WAJR’s ‘Talk of the Town.’ “There’s a cost to that- there’s a readiness cost.”
The cost to taxpayers is 60% of the assessed value of property, not the appraised value.
Weyen said when the roof blew off the roof at Hazel’s House of Hope in May as many as 30 residents had to be checked and evaluated in the middle of the night. The current revenue model reimburses for transport to the hospital, but does not provide a way to recoup other costs associated with emergency response.
“The way the EMS reimbursement system is set up is that if I would have taken one of those patients to a hospital they would have received a bill for their insurance, but there’s no one else to receive a bill for that response or that readiness,” Weyen said.
Weyen said the cost model for EMS services in more populated areas of the county are viable, but there is not enough volume to support other areas.
“Mon EMS needs 6.2 calls a day for an ambulance to be viable,” Weyen said. “Our folks on the western end average about 1.2 calls a day, so the math does not work.”
When Star City EMS folded due to mounting costs Mon EMS immediately assumed those runs. In response, the Monongalia County Commission approved a one time $1 million to subsidize the operation and asked Weyen to consider the levy option.
“About 60-percent of our budget comes from patient revenues- patients that we transport,” Weyen said. “Right now, the shortfall comes from the county and Mon Health and WVU Medicine make up the difference.”
In November of 2021, David Bandy, 31, was being transported to the Mon Health Medical Center when he unbuckled his restraints and attacked EMS workers. The EMS worker was treated for stab wounds to the torso and hand. Bandy was convicted of malicious assault of emergency services personnel and is awaiting sentencing.
“With some of the violence happening in Morgantown our people want body armor,” Weyen said. “We need to build stations that are EMS specific that have places to decontaminate equipment so the next patient has a clean ambulance.”