Transition to Meridian ambulance smooth

CALAIS – “Meridian Mobile Health Care,” the dispatcher said Friday at the offices of the former McGovern Ambulance Service on Union Street.

Although the voice was calm, earlier this week it appeared there might not be any ambulance service for about 30 communities Down East.

But city and town officials agreed that, thanks to Bangor-based Meridian, people in need of emergency ambulance service were not left without help when McGovern stopped operating.

McGovern Ambulance’s problems began last year when federal officials raided its office alleging Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

Last month, a federal grand jury handed up a 214-count indictment that charged Dana McGovern and his ambulance service with defrauding Medicare and Medicaid of nearly $1 million. Within weeks, the company announced it had filed for bankruptcy protection. Days later, it said it did not have enough operating capital to provide ambulance service beyond 4 p.m. Dec. 7.

Cities and towns began to scramble for a solution, and that is when Meridian Mobile Health of Bangor stepped in. The company offered to provide a 90-day stopgap service that would keep ambulances on the road.

Charles McCarthy, who along with Affiliated Health Care Systems, a subsidiary of Eastern Maine Health Care, owns Meridian, said that he was pleased with the transition. “It went excellent and … it was due to the employees. If it wasn’t for them sticking around, it wouldn’t have been pulled off,” he said.

McCarthy said he had been meeting with employees, health centers and area hospitals all day Friday and they were supportive. “Everything has been very positive,” he said.

In the past, McGovern served 30 eastern Washington County communities including Calais, Eastport and Lubec. It managed Pleasant River Ambulance Service in western Washington County and the Northern Washington-Southern Aroostook Regional Ambulance Service. Pleasant River voted to operate its own ambulance service and not sign on with Meridian.

Not all communities have been affected by the McGovern debacle. Communities such as Pleasant Point, Indian Township, Baileyville and Machias operate their own ambulance services and have not been affected by the problems with McGovern.

After McGovern announced it was closing its doors, Meridian appealed to the U.S. attorney and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to release McGovern’s equipment so it could operate an ambulance service Down East.

Meridian has agreed to provide service for the next 90 days while communities focus on some long-term solutions.

Calais interim City Manager Jim Porter said things were running “without a glitch” Friday. He said that he had not received any complaints from area residents about unavailable ambulance service.

He said Meridian was using the same telephone numbers that McGovern had, so people did not have to scramble.

Although the city has agreed to hire Meridian for 90 days, Porter said, they still plan to look closely at the ambulance service the Calais Fire Department planned to offer.

But even with all the unresolved issues, several of the councilors seemed to favor the city service because they would have greater control over it, and also because they would be able to control the costs.

“We have a 90-day breather,” Porter said. “Nobody would jump into anything like that in the private sector without a business plan. What [the fire department] had was the start of a business plan,” Porter said.

Eastport City Manager George “Bud” Finch described the move from McGovern to Meridian as “a smooth transition.” He said that they should know shortly how much the interim service would cost. Company, town and city officials were still trying to resolve that Friday.

Finch said that he would like to see some type of regional ambulance service put in place that would allow cities and towns to administer their own ambulance service.

Although Lubec is looking at creating its own service, Town Administrator Nancy Matthews also said the transition went “very smoothly.” She said that people in Lubec had to simply call the same telephone numbers to reach an ambulance and there had been no complaints about the service. “This is just a trial basis to help all of us, and [Meridian is] looking to be here after 90 days if this all works,” she said.