VASSALBORO: Ambulance director supplies newsletter explaining rate increase request

by Mary Grow

Among reports shared at the Vassalboro Select Board’s Sept. 5 meeting was an August 2024 newsletter prepared by Delta Ambulance executive director Chris Mitchell to answer some of the questions from area town officials.

The ambulance service began asking for municipal support in the previous fiscal year, requesting $15 per capita from towns it serves. In the current fiscal year that began July 1, 2024, the figure is $25 per capita. Mitchell and his predecessor, Timothy Beals, both predicted increases continue.

In the newsletter, Mitchell wrote that as 2023 ended, “Delta was facing annual losses between $2.5 to $3 million and had exhausted its financial reserves.”

Since then, Delta leaders have sold their Augusta station and are leasing it. They have negotiated financial aid from the two hospital systems they primarily serve, MaineGeneral and Northern Light Inland. The state legislature has approved financial aid to ambulance companies, though only a small portion is available so far.

Consequently, Mitchell wrote, Delta now anticipates losing only about $570,000 in the 2024-25 fiscal year. If the per-capita fee charged to municipalities increases to $35 in the fiscal year that begins in July 2025, he expects a balanced budget for 2025-26.

Mitchell’s report explains Delta’s on-going needs, including replacing ambulances – the replacement schedule was disrupted during the pandemic – and finding and paying staff.

As he did in local meetings during municipal budget discussion earlier this year, Mitchell mentioned inadequate insurance reimbursement as a major problem for ambulance services, one that state and federal legislators need to recognize and remedy.

Mitchell’s chart of calls to 13 area towns for the first seven months of 2024 shows 254 Vassalboro calls, an average of 36 a month. Average monthly response time varied from 11 minutes, 40 seconds, in April (one of the busiest months, with 44 calls) to 15 minutes, 35 seconds (in July, the least busy month, with only 25 calls).