In February, the island could be left without a medical emergency airlift because the government does not pay the only company that provides this vital service.
Several physicians operating at the Río Piedras Medical Center interviewed by the Daily Sun, told horror stories of patients arriving at the trauma center near death because of road transportation, which takes longer than an airlift.
“There were a lot of cases when the individual could be saved, but because they were not transported through air, they die en route. Air transportation is imperative in some high trauma cases,” said a doctor who wished to remain anonymous.
The main reason family or doctors choose land transportation is to save money, according to consensus.
Several other doctors confirmed the statement of the need for a reliable airlift capability.
Accurate data on the number of deaths attributed to a lack of an emergency airlift capability were not available, but most experts and industry insiders placed the number at more than a dozen every year.
The island has already been without a medical airlift service since Aero-Med filed for Chapter 11 bankrupcy in 2008, ceasing all operations that year until Dec. 2009.
Then, in March 2010, after providing the government with service for nearly two months without receiving compensation, the company shut down again until the Centro American and Caribbean Games started in July.
Mounting government debts are financially strangling Aero-Med, Puerto Rico’s sole helicopter medical airlift company, to the point that many board members are questioning the wisdom of continuing to operate.
Over all, the government owes the company in excess of $600,000 in current and back payments.
For a corporation with an operational overhead of $200,000 a month, that’s a critical debt to be carrying and one that can’t continue for much longer.
Aero-Med President José Hernández argued that without a real resolution of the payment situation, his company will be hard pressed to continue operating past early 2011.
“We gave the government service in January and February waiting to see what their attitude would be regarding payment,” Hernández said.
The government failed to pay, forcing the company to close the much needed operation once gain.
When the Mayaguez 2010 games were set to start, the government was forced to pay Aero-Med to provide services.
The Daily Sun has learned that many persons inside Gov. Fortuño’s administration were not too keen to have the service back in operations, mainly due to the outstanding balance it had accumulated with the company.
An administration official suggested the idea that the Coast Guard and National Guard could supply the choppers for the airlift, if needed.
“We resumed operations on July 17 after we told the government we would not operate during the Games because of the outstanding debt.
Four days prior to the Games they decided to contract us,” Hernández said.
The list of debtors starts with its biggest client, the Automobile Accident Compensation Administration (AACA), which owes the corporation more than $300,000 and accounts for 48 percent of its transported patients.
Since the Mayagüez event, the AACA has reduced the overall size of its debt from $500,000 to the current level but the agency and the other government institutions that use the services have not signed their service contracts as discussed after the incident.
Nearly all the injured covered by AACA are car accident victims who must be transported.
The Health Department had an outstanding balance of $100,000 and the Corporation for the State Insurance Fund owes $45,000.
The Health transfers are usually crime victims, trauma patients, and even babies, such as one 11-day old infant the company moved from a mountain town to the Río Piedras Medical Center on Christmas Day.
To add to the problem, the service contracts between two of those agencies, AACA and the Department, are set to expire soon.
The agreement with the CSIF expired two years ago, and still the coporation keeps flying injured workers, including a Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority line worker who suffered an accident on the job.
The contract with the CSIF is important to the government, because they are the agency that compensates for work-related accidents involving primary workers like police officers, fire fighters and even emergency personnel.
But the CSIF has been negligent in their management of the situation.
Despite not having a signed contract with Aero-Med, officials from the Fund routinely call up the company for an airlift.
“There’s a person there (CSIF), Dr. García, who calls us every time he needs an airlift, and promises us payments and contract signings, but after the service is provided, he disappears,” Hernández said.
Conversations regarding the service agreement with the Health Department is set to start next week. The deal with AACA is still in the early stages.
Aero-Med is also facing another situation, the refusal to pay for transporting injured individuals who do not fulfill certain criteria.
AACA does not cover the transportation of people who have been in accidents involving four-track trucks, victims under the influence of alcohol and illegal drugs, victims without a valid driving license and individuals who are not yet identified when the lift is ordered.
Early in the year, Health Secretary Lorenzo González told Hernández that he would be requesting a monthly allocation from the Legislature to cover the expenses regularly.
The problem is that as of today, no allocation or other disbursement has been approved or is under discussion at the Capitol.
Overall, Aero-Med made between 35 to 45 trips a month this past year, a figure that pales in comparision to the almost 90 monthly flights it performed a decade ago.
By Raul Colon for the PR Daily Sun
No comments:
Post a Comment