SRMT Courts Town of Bombay for Ambulance Service

In the most recent in a series of events concerning the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe and ambulance service for its community members, the Tribe met with the Town of Bombay. Their goal is to enter into a formal mutual aid agreement for medical services in Akwesasne, an area currently the subject of land claims.

The Town of Bombay currently holds the jurisdiction of the “Hogansburg Triangle” so all emergency medical provider’s calls must be routed through Bombay as having sole responsibility and ultimately liability for any answered call. The Franklin County Office of Emergency Services lists the Akwesasne Mohawk Ambulance as part of their servicing agencies.

With the introduction of the Seaway Valley Ambulance and their controversial placement of a sub-station in Akwesasne, the Akwesasne Mohawk Ambulance continue to remain the central provider to Akwesasne and the Town of Bombay until a formal agreement is reached.

In the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe’s effort to save money and improve on response time with ALS service, the SRMT no longer has a contract with the Akwesasne Mohawk Ambulance.

Phil Brown, Director of Seaway Valley Ambulance said there are “Tribal members” from Akwesasne employed by Seaway Valley Ambulance; two are certified drivers, one is a certified EMT, and one hails from Chateauguay, Quebec.

According to sources familiar with billing records, the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe was serviced by AMA from 1987 to 2007, and most answered calls by AMA to the southern portion of Akwesasne allegedly went unpaid adding up to millions of dollars. Calls made to the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino were left unpaid. The service bills of AMA were then sent to the Casino and they too refused to make payments. Once a billing system was set in place, the Tribe, dependent upon the emergency/non-emergency status of the call, arbitrarily paid calls.

Bombay community resident and Board members raised questions and concerns in regards to billing. Under the contract with the SRMT, Seaway Valley Ambulance would bill the medical insurance providers of the patient. Currently, Seaway Valley Ambulance is not the only emergency provider that bills the patient’s insurance; Northern Ambulance and Ft. Covington ambulance service also charge the patient’s insurance. A fact that has become part of everyone’s life.

In reference to the meeting with the Town of Bombay, Mr. Barreiro stated, “It’s really not a Town of Bombay issue, it is an expense borne by the individual patient. Further discussion that night was about how insurance billings are a fact of life and that more and more people now have some form of insurance due to Federal legislation – Affordable Care Act and Medicaid Expansion. Not to mention QHIP and OHIP. We explained that just as the new Tribal EMS service provides quicker ALS support and response to the MCA districts of Akwesasne, the Tribal EMS service can do the same for Town of Bombay and Fort Covington residents; many of whom are tribal members.”

Mr. Diabo, Manager of AMA, stated, “We have EMT’s in school and working full time. By the end of July we will have one ALS certified technician in each one of our four fully equipped and staffed ambulance trucks. Our response time to the four corners is 7 minutes, 8 minutes is the national standard. Without a baseline of data to compare response time, the ‘improved response time of Seaway Valley is purely speculation’. We will have an AMA ambulance stationed at the Hogansburg-Akwesasne Volunteer Fire Department by the end of June to improve upon our services to the community of Akwesasne. We are entirely staffed by Mohawk community members.”