NORWICH – A complaint has been filed with the state Health Department against Cooperstown Medical Transport (CMT) for allegedly operating in Chenango County without a permit.
CMT, based in Delaware and Otsego counties, is in the early stages of seeking approval to expand its EMS certificate into Chenango. In the meantime, the company has been operating in the county on occasion at the request of local leaders and EMS officials as they sort out the area’s ongoing ambulance shortage.
Margaret McGown, CMT’s chief financial officer, confirmed Thursday that a complaint has been lodged against the company.
Aside from heavy speculation, it has not been confirmed who filed the complaint. CMT has not been officially notified by the Department of Health, McGown added, so it’s not clear what, if any, violations have occurred or what possible penalties might be.
“We will do whatever the Department of Health asks us to do,” she said. “If that means not posting (being on-call) in Chenango County until the certification process is complete, then that’s what we’ll do.”
The Department of Health did not return a message seeking comment Thursday.
The complaint will “absolutely” not squash CMT’s plans to expand its ambulance service into Chenango County, McGown said.
“Any rumor that we’re going to pull-out now is absolutely incorrect,” she said. “We are going to continue what we’ve been doing. We’re going right along with plans as is.”
CMT has filed to expand its existing operating certificate with the regional arm of the Health Department in Binghamton. If approved there, the recommendation will be forwarded on to Albany to make a final decision. The process will take a minimum of three months, McGown said.
If approved, the company is slated to bring in an ambulance to handle hospital-to-hospital transports, but says it will provide whatever services are needed. If business is good, there’s a possibility it will add more ambulances.
The EMS shortage, a growing problem for the past several years according to emergency officials, hit crisis mode with the loss of Binghamton-based Superior Ambulance, who handled the majority of calls in outlying townships that lacked EMS volunteers and equipment.
Superior stopped doing business locally Oct. 25, citing a lack of profitable business.
With Superior gone, CMT and a start-up provider, Cross Ambulance Inc., have expressed interest in stepping in to fill that gap. Cross, however, only exists in name, although it is applying for a certificate of need and securing funding for equipment and a location.
Chenango County Emergency Coordinator Matt Beckwith has also submitted a plan that would involve the county hiring three highly-qualified paramedics that would travel from call-to-call for 60 hours a week to help out volunteer squads that lack personnel.
Beckwith did not return calls seeking comment on the matter Thursday.
McGown said CMT on two or three occasions has run transports in Chenango County.
According to state law, a certified EMS provider can only operate in its primary area except when;
• Receiving a patient which it initially delivered to a facility outside its primary territory
• In response to a request for mutual aid from another certified or registered ambulance service
• In response to a mutual aid plan implemented by a central dispatch agency on behalf of a certified or registered ambulance service or on behalf of a county or city emergency management office
• Transporting a patient, who is a resident of the primary operating territory, outside that area.
• It has the approval of the department or the appropriate regional emergency medical services council to expand its territory for up to 60 days if it is necessary to meet an emergency need.
CMT has applied for a 60-day emergency certificate of need while it awaits full approval from the Department of Health, but that request has yet to be granted.