CALAIS – Like the mythical Phoenix resurrecting from its own ashes, eastern Washington County’s ambulance service has raised itself from its own ruins to become a lifesaving business.

A few determined people made the difference.

More than three years ago, the region’s residents wondered if a telephone call to a central dispatch service would produce an ambulance. The private ambulance service was in a shambles, and its owner had been charged with fraud.

For nearly a decade, McGovern Ambulance Service had provided exclusive coverage to area communities. Dana McGovern had built the business from a one-town, one-ambulance business into an operation providing service in Maine and New Brunswick.

Then in 1999, federal agents raided his offices on Union Street. He was charged with Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

In July, McGovern, 38, was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay more than $700,000 in restitution to government-funded insurance programs.

As McGovern’s business began to falter, a Bangor ambulance service provided temporary coverage while municipal leaders scrambled for a more permanent regional solution.

What followed were countless meetings and a lot of teeth gnashing. Some communities wanted to go it alone while others balked at paying a per capita service fee, arguing that federal and state programs and private insurances should pick up the tab.

McGovern had built his business on billing Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers, but as federal and state money dwindled, McGovern found himself in an economic squeeze. He tried to mitigate his financial problems by charging communities a per capita fee, but the effort proved too little too late.

After months of negotiations among area communities, Downeast EMS emerged. The Washington County Medical Service Authority, a quasi-municipal entity, oversees operations. A resident from each of the service communities serves on the authority’s board of directors.

Today, with a $1 million operating budget and 50 full- and part-time employees, Downeast EMS serves 25 communities.

“It includes cities, towns and unorganized territories in Washington, a portion of Aroostook and a small spot in Penobscot counties,” said Danny Carlow, director of Downeast EMS. The service extends from Calais, Eastport and Lubec to Wesley and Danforth in eastern Washington County.

The authority was a year old on June 8, and the 24-hour, seven-day-a-week service has received high marks for its rapid response time.

“The very first day we were expected to be in service, we were up and running,” Carlow said. “To the best of my knowledge, we did not miss a call.”

Although grant money was promised for capital costs, it did not materialize. Calais, Eastport and Lubec bankrolled the $800,000 equipment startup costs. The ambulance bay stations are located within those communities.

“The cost to Eastport, Calais and Lubec is $75,000 a year for the first five years, then it will just be stipend costs after that,” said George “Bud” Finch, chairman of the authority.

The authority contracted with the Bangor Fire Department to handle its billing. “One of the things we were up against was knowing anything we did down here would be audited closely by Medicare and Medicaid, and we wanted to make sure everything was wide open,” Finch said.

The service communities are charged a per capita fee. “The rate … between what we take in and what we need to operate was set this year by the board of directors at $12.50 per capita,” Carlow said.

Finch said the state average is about $25. “We are going to try to keep ours between the $12 to $15 range because we feel that is all this area can afford,” he said.

Whenever the federal government announces cuts, it has an impact. “Our business here relies as much as 70 percent on Medicare and Medicaid and coverage for the uninsured,” Carlow said. “We are running in that same pot of money that the government keeps wanting to cut. So any time you hear of cuts coming up in Medicare and Medicaid, it affects what your ambulance is receiving.”

Eventually, Finch believes, income will cover the capital costs. “We believe that the revenues will reach a point where they will support the purchase of all new capital and the costs to the three communities will drop down to just the per capita costs,” he said.