Why would that Michael who resides in Succasunna, NJ contribute? He is not a resident of JC. McCabe Ambulance does operate in Succasunna, NJ.

This article mentions McCabe's son Michael:
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2013/08/post_358.html

re: the report on mcCabe's $10,400 contribution....how do we know this is the same Michael McCabe that owns McCabe Ambulance? I am not looking to be adversarial, only looking to understand the connection of dots from a michale mccabe in Sucusunna to michael mccabe in Bayonne. Right now, documentation wise, there is no connection (i.e. it could be 2 separate Michael McCabe's). Again, not looking to be adversarial, but this document takes on dramatically more import if you can prove the connection.

My family is going to attend our very first council meeting to address our concern. Thanks to Yvonne, I now know how much our resident's lives are worth. Mere $10,400 to the contribution before the election and $2.6 million to city to get the contract.

Please sign the petition below. I hope number in our voice matters.

http://www.change.org/petitions/mayor ... rsey-city-s-ems-provider#

In this instance, there cannot be enough said about the importance of long-term relationships with medical providers, an expert understanding of the neighborhoods served, and a century long commitment to our unique city. The question must be asked - what kind of potential liability does this sudden switch open up the taxpayers to? Just Google "EMT response time lawsuits" to see what could await us.

Why can there only be one ambulance service per city, anyway? Seems unfair that one could have health insurance and the only ambulance provider in the city doesn't accept it..

I am commenting again on this subject so this topic stays up and us residents are aware what is at risk here.

Mayor Fulop, whom I voted for is dead wrong in this agenda and even bringing it up. He is short changing us residents, potentially putting our lives at risk and also disregarding the fact that the CarePoint/McCabe doesn't accept many of the major insurance which means us residents will be footing the bills.

His arrogance in spending time self promoting with all the honchos at DC while wasting our time trying to change something that is actually working in JC, a highly rated EMS service that has been serving residents for over century. Trying to reason hiring more fireman to service EMS short change is truly baffling. Do your job Major, find the budget for firman in JC, balance your book. Do not replace and downgrade our EMS by replacing JCMC EMS.

When a for profit health service which priority is to make money, offers to pay the city $2.6 million to replace an outstanding non-profit health service, all the red flags should go up. Major, you were a banker not too long ago, don't try to balance your book with just numbers and try to justify with some slap on reasons that so far have not made any sense. We residents are not just numbers, we are human beings. Remember we voted you in, and we can easily vote you out.

Monday - 12/16/13 - I open the Jersey Journal and see a full page ad from McCabe Ambulance. This ad appears five different times in the newspapers today. Nothing is free, so I can see the rates going up to pay for these ads. Who knows they might run tomorrow and Wednesday.

True ALS has to be run by a Hospital, neither Christ Hospital nor Bayonne Hospital are Trauma Centers whereas JCMC is and has ALS already on hand and in fact on a daily basis puts out more ALS units then is required by law. So more then likely I presume JCMC will handle that and I am sure that Mccabe, Carepoint will more then likely only pay for the minimum as required by law since they are for Profit ,as for insurance I know for a fact that Blue Cross/ Blue Shield does not do business with Carepoint ,so You will be out of network,(while it may be in the contract with the ambulance carrier ,it is certainly NOT with the insurance company.) Now as for the Fire Department , they already respond as first responders, my point was instead of being out of service for 5- 10 minutes they will now be out of service for at least double that, who pays for that? The residents do!! So again no savings for the Residents .So again the only winner is Carepoint/ Mccabe, who get the contract and will undoubtedly steer the patient to the for profit Carepoint Christ Hospital, who as a hospital doesn't come close to providing the level of service that the Medical Center provides, so again I ask what is the positive for the residents of Jersey City

Thanks for your reply. Most contracts REQUIRE a certain number of ambulances. With everything going on over the past couple of months with this contract, I would say it is a safe bet that McCabe has some trucks on order. So while you are absolutely correct that what the website currently states for McCabe is a certain number of trucks, I would expect them to bulk order some more with the help of CarePoint.

As for the issue of ALS, its state law in NJ that ALS has to be affiliated with a hospital. I would assume that part of this partnership involves the medics to be run out of Christ Hospital, most likely affiliated in some way with Bayonne Hospital..

As for the costs incurred by the patient, another common piece of MOST municipal ambulance contracts is a provision that dictates how much an ambulance service is able to charge. Now, the RFP used to be accessible on the Jersey City website, but I can no longer find it to tell you whether or not they were required to disclose their charges.

As for Jersey City Fire first responding to calls, they might actually welcome that.. It justifies their numbers by generating runs. Again, this is a very common occurrence in larger urban EMS systems. With a decrease in fires, many feel they are better suited to be on the medical calls anyway, since they are paid by the hour and not the run. It's a sad truth in pre-hospital medicine.

I understand the concerns of the public with the city possibly moving away from JCMC.. I am just trying to share some level of expertise on the subject, so I thank you for your comments!

Medicssbk, While Mccabe may in fact be a good ambulance provider the facts are rather simple ,you state Mccabe should put more ambulances then usual in service , well according to their website they state they have a fleet of 11 ambulances!!! JCMC puts out a lot more ambulances then that each day, Mccabe has no ALS so who does that... JCMC is not giving up their ambulance service so I doubt their emts will be going to Mccabe. Mccabe is partnered with care point who owns Christ Hospital , Bayonne Hospital etc , they don't accept a lot of insurance companies such as blue cross/blue shield which is the largest insurance carrier in the state so the residents will have to pay out of network costs! Response times will be a lot longer simple arithmetic tells you that twenty is greater then eleven, especially when Mccabe covers all of Bayonne as well as private transports, so you are tying up the fire department significantly longer on the first responder calls , so please enlighten me as to how outsourcing to a for profit ambulance service actually benefits the residents, I've listed some of the reasons not to ,can you give me one reason to, (don't say because the city gets 2.6 million dollars that will be spent rather quickly paying for the fire department extended time on first responder calls)

Hi, everyone. Let me preface this by saying that I do not live in New Jersey anymore. I do not work for JCMC EMS OR McCabe. I am, however, interested in industry changes and moves within EMS. I have worked in the industry for twelve years, and I feel like I can offer you all something in regards to some of the comments I've read on this topic.

First of all, JCMC EMS has done a HECK of a job of improving their service. Frankly, the last thing anyone should be looking at is response times. The REAL success that JCMC EMS has had is the improvement in their CPR save rates and the strides they have made in patient care. Excellent job. . .

What I have read and heard about the contract intrigues me. From what I've seen, McCabe will do the contract for nothing and give the city back 3% of their gross income. I have heard of services capping their income at a certain percentage, but never just straight kicking back, so that is interesting.

From the JCMC side, the nearly $4 million subsidy just going away is also intriguing, and I am sure that left a rather sour taste in the mouth of the city. The mayor, seeing the opportunity to turn around $6.5 million on his budget probably jumped at it.

Now, here is the tough thing to talk about.. What will actually happen when McCabe takes over?

In my experience with EMS when cities and counties change contracts (one example would be Alameda County in California) what you see is a number of the employees from the existing service go over to the "new" service. So while the names on the trucks might change, the people who are actually providing the care (which is most important if you ask me) for the large part stay the same. Sure, there are situations where people DONT go to the service but with a service as large as JCMC EMS it is bound to happen.

Will the providers like their new employer? That remains to be seen, but some WILL go.

Changes like this are never easy, and frankly, until the language in the contract is made public we really cannot speculate about what will happen from here. McCabe most likely will be required to provide a certain number of trucks to the city, and they will have to deliver on response time requirements to the city, and most likely at least for the start of the contract if they are smart they will OVER deliver. From everything I have read, Mickey McCabe is not a dumb man. For a non-hospital based service in New Jersey to have existed for 40 years, the guy is doing something right. That is not a feat that is often seen, especially with services like AMR and Rural Metro who were quick to buy up services in the 90's.

There is going to be a lot to come in the next month on this. JCMC will most likely lay some pretty big cards on the table for better or worse, and all at the risk of either winning the public's support, or completely alienating the city council...

Time will tell..

Jersey City plans to switch ambulance providers after 130 years with same company

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
December 14, 2013 at 3:06 AM

Jersey City is planning to switch ambulance providers after 130 years with Jersey City Medical Center. Pending approval, the city will award a contract to for-profit CarePoint Health and Bayonne-based McCabe Ambulance.

The new three-year pact, if approved by the city council next week, would bring in $2.6 million for the city annually, officials said in announcing the change.

In its most recent contract, JCMC has been charging the city $3.8 million annually for ambulance service over the last three years. But CarePoint/McCabe offered to pay the city for the contract.

The $2.6 million from CarePoint/McCabe would allow the city to pay for firefighters who act as first responders for any calls the new providers cannot respond to in time, according to city officials.

?We made the right choice for the taxpayers of Jersey City and equally important we made the right choice for anybody who needs transportation to the hospital,? Mayor Steve Fulop said in a statement. ?This ensures Jersey City residents will receive the highest quality of emergency health care.?

Read more from the Jersey Journal

Out with the old guard, and in with the old guard.

Quote:

+10000!

I hesitated posting because of the possible retaliation from some people (not the Mayor) in this administration since I'm employed by the City. Screw that, I live here and knowing that this can put lives in danger is unacceptable.

Mayor Fulop,

As a resident of Jersey City I'm pleading with you to withdraw this.

This is a terrible move by Fulop and I really just can't see any justified reason for anyone on the council to support the Mayor on this one. JCMC provides the city with excellent service. If McCabe-CarePoint doesn't match or exceed JCMC's service record lives will be put at risk. How is this risky and unnecessary change to our Emergency Response good for the residents of Jersey City?

If it isn't broken don't try to fix it.

I received this letter from my neighbor, Dr. Wang:

I'm sorry to disturb all of you with this email but this is something very important and I wanted to make sure the word got out about it:

You may have read in the local papers that the city administration had decided to recommend that the City Council award the Jersey City EMS contract to McCabe Ambulance, a FOR-PROFIT EMS agency which in turn is sponsored/funded by Carepoint Health, the FOR-PROFIT group that owns Bayonne Medical Center, Hoboken Medical Center and Christ Hospital. This is not good for the residents of Jersey City as the model that Carepoint Health uses is to direct patients to their Emergency Departments and then charge them some of the highest rates in the country - this New York Times article had shown this - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/bus ... s.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0.

The Jersey City Medical Center EMS has served Jersey City for 130 years now and is nationally recognized as high quality and progressive with great patient care and responses that rival the top EMS agencies across the country. The Journal of Emergency Medical Services (JEMS) had highlighted JCMC EMS as one of the premier EMS agencies in the country - http://www.jems.com/article/administr ... obtains-five-national-rec.

I know the importance of this because I have been working as the Medical Director for our EMS since I moved here to Jersey City in 2005. Since then I've been working hard to further the quality of care and services provided by our 911 dispatchers, EMTs and paramedics so that in case that it may be my own family, friends, colleagues and neighbors who end up having an emergency, that I can rest easy knowing they will get the best quality care.

If McCabe Ambulance is awarded the contract at the City Council meeting, their FOR-PROFIT EMS service that currently covers about 10,000 calls a year will then start providing EMS service to Jersey City on January 1st - just for comparison, our EMS agency covers 90,000 calls a year with about 50,000 in Jersey City and we do it with some of the best response times for emergencies in the nation!

Please let your families, friends, neighbors, colleagues and co-workers know about this and come out to let the City Council know the importance of keeping JCMC EMS as Jersey City's EMS provider! The City Council meeting is this Wednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 6PM at City Hall.

Thank you in advance for your time and support! Attached is the flyer detailing the issues. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Sincerely,

Bill Wang, MD, FACEP

Associate Director
Department of Emergency Medicine
Medical Director
Emergency Medical Services
Jersey City Medical Center
355 Grand St.
Jersey City, NJ 07302

JCMC has provided EMS for 130 years...isn't is fishy that you change an EMS provider that excels in beating country wide standards?
No one is saying McCabe is a poor provider of EMS but they were just purchased by Care Point (51%) who falls into a loophole in insurance companies and charges the insurance whatever they want and the insurance HAS to pay. This will change in January with Obamacare and the what????
McCabe can't support this on their own so they will either have to charge the patient or go bankrupt PLUS the McCabe owner is partial to Bayonne so then what????
I don't deny change but when it works why?
I'll tell you why, the mayor had a fight with the CEO of the medical center so punish the citizens of JC? Great mayor!

Yes, this will be on the council agenda this Wednesday (12/18).

According to www.jclivesmatter.org there will likely be a lot of people there supporting the JCMC. I know I will.

I hope everyone reaches out to his/ her council person and ask to vote no on this EMS change. I just emailed Candice this morning.

It's so arrogant to equate $2 million money (not saved but paid) to justify the change and putting us residents' lives at risk.

1) Current EMS is employing people in JC.
2) Current EMS takes major medical insurance.
3) Current EMS is proven and has been running the service for our area for over 100+ years.

4) Carepoint and McCabe: Unproven and out of network with most insurance which means us residents will be saddled with the hefty bills.
5) Carepoint and McCabe: Not based out of JC but Bayonne and is for profit company with no proven record that equates or comparable to our current EMS.

This is wrong agenda that shouldn't even been brought up.

I think the administration has a lot of questions to answer from the public about this. Will this decision be before the City Council and open for public input?

I certainly understand the motivation to save money but this is not a decision to be made lightly. I think the administration owes the city an explanation of what potential impact this will have on response times and what hospitals ambulances will be taking people to.

Switching to Mccabe what does the City get in the short run 2.6 million dollarvs. When you actually think about it the people of Jersey City will lose a lot more. 1st off they won't have as many ambulances covering Jersey City, since their own web site states they have a fleet of 11 ambulances. JCMC puts out a lot more then that each day to cover JC (Don't forget Mccabe covers all of Bayonne as well as well as private transports between hospitals) Mccabe does not have Paramedics (ALS) who covers that and subsequently pays. Response times will be drastically increased and thereby on a first responder call you will be tying up a Fire company for that much longer....In the long run the taxpayers will pay a lot more and unfortunately some with their lives... Good thing the Mayor is crunching numbers, unfortunately with peoples lives.

This reminds me of Schundler selling the public a bill of goods on privatizing the water. He mention how much money the city would receive. Well, Schundler was right about that, the rates went through the roof. Bayonne Hospital has one of the highest rates as a hospital so I suspect, McCabe will make their profit with inflated bills.

McCabe is a well entrenched Bayonne native that has handled EMS service and training in the city for a long while. Whether they're large enough and ready-out-of-the-gate for a large city medical environment is a totally different story.

This is an odd switch and worth some scrutiny.

Mark Rabson's OpEd in the Jersey Journal:

SOURCE

(Reader comments are interesting - particularly the one's focusing upon McCabe's long response times...)

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop has recommended that the city switch ambulance providers and award a contract to CarePoint Health and Bayonne-based McCabe Ambulance over the Jersey City Medical Center (JCMC).

The following is a response from Jersey City Medical Center Director of Public Affairs Mark Rabson to the decision:

We are extremely disappointed in the city?s decision not to renew its contract for EMS services with the Jersey City Medical Center.

Instead of continuing to trust the lives of its residents with a proven nationally recognized EMS provider, this administration has decided to take its chances with an unproven, untested EMS provider associated with a for-profit hospital system from outside of Jersey City.


The Jersey City Medical Center operates one of the best EMS systems in the country, and has won numerous awards for innovation, training and nationally recognized response times. It has been featured in industry magazines, newspapers and on television as an industry leader.

Jersey City residents will be reaping the consequences of today?s decision for years to come in terms of unreliable response times, an unproven level of healthcare services provided and the transportation fees associated with a for-profit EMS provider.


CarePoint and McCabe are for-profit organizations which are out of network with most insurance providers. We know this will be a disservice to the public. The out-of-network models allows hospitals to bill extremely high rates and patients must enter through the emergency department.


We are making plans where citizens requiring an ambulance will be able to contact the Jersey City Medical Center directly and will be able to have the excellent services they have been known to expect without fear of high bills and as always still be able to go to the hospital of their choice.

It?s also important to note that the City?s press release inaccurately states that the JCMC?s bid to provide EMS services to the City at no cost included a provision where we would use ?volunteer EMTs? as first responders. That suggestion is completely false and is indicative of a flawed and poorly managed municipal RFP process.

The JCMC EMS has been proudly serving, and saving the lives of Jersey City residents for the last 130 years. Our average 6 minute response time is one of the best of any mid-sized city in the country, we provide twice the number of advanced life support paramedics than required by state law and patients on our ambulances are 45% more likely than the national average to be revived after all vital signs have ceased.

We hope that the thousands of Jersey City residents who were kind enough to support the JCMC contract throughout this RFP process, those who know and used the ambulance services will consider attending next Wednesday?s City Council meeting to let their opinions on the City?s decision be known.?

MARK RABSON

Director of Public Affairs, JCMC

This is on the December 18 agenda?

Mayor Fulop announced yesterday that he will recommend to the city council that they change EMS/ambulance providers.

The Medical Center has been the city's ambulance provider for over 100 years and receive all kinds of national recognition for their good work and fast response time, etc. Plus, the Medical Center is a non-profit entity, is in-network with most insurance carriers and does tons of charity care work for patients that need help.

The mayor put out an RFP and the Medical Center offered to provide ambulance service to the City for FREE - forgoing the $4 mil a year subsidy that they needed during the Healy years.

So instead of jumping at the chance to save the city $4 mil and keep us safe by continuing to use the Med Center, Fulop chose to go with some unqualified ambulance service associated with Bayonne Hospital and Christ Hospital. Their lobbyist on the deal was non other than disgraced former US Senator Bob Toricelli.

The kicker here is that this new ambulance service offered to pay the city $2.6 mil a year to provide the service. Sound fishy?

Simply put, Mayor Fulop decided to chose to put our lives at risk by switching EMS services form one of the best in the country to some unproved Bayonne outfit that doesn't have enough staff and equiptment to be up and running by Jan. 1.

Makes you wonder why this for-profit ambulance service would offer to PAY a city in order to provide a service to that city. They must be getting a ton of money on the back end (ie. our medical bills).

This whole situation is a shame because I liked Fulop.

I can't wait to Wednesday's council meeting -- I can only hope that our council people do the right thing and vote NO on Toricelli's make-shift ambulance squad from Bayonne.