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To the editor:
In Fiscal Year 2022, when New York City negotiated its now-expired contract with the FDNY EMS, city taxpayers paid a fraction more than 5 percent of the total cost to operate the FDNY EMS. The FDNY recouped the remaining 95 percent of its expenses from patients or their health insurance carriers.
According to official documents for FY 2022, the FDNY spent $396,934,000 to run EMS. This included salaries, fringe benefits, overtime, property, equipment, supplies and materials. For the same time period, the FDNY had anticipated $376,200,000 in revenue for its Emergency Medical Services.
For the fiscal year that ended June 30, what percentage of EMS' cost did NYC recoup from all sources, including from third-party reimbursements that were passed on to it by the Health + Hospitals' Corp. and from the FDNY's own billing department? What revenues are still outstanding?
EMS' sole mission is to save lives. Is there any other NYC service that repaid city taxpayers 95 percent of its cost? Shamefully, in 2021 NYC couldn't even follow its own law and treat the FDNY EMS as a "uniformed service" when it came to negotiating pay and benefits.
It appears that in the current contract talks, Mayor Eric Adams' administration is still balking at following the law.
Helen Northmore
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