A dispute over billing between the Board of Selectmen and the volunteer Harvard Ambulance Service threatens the life blood of the Harvard community.
The Board of Selectmen raised the notion of billing in 2004 when David Durrant directed the Harvard Ambulance Service (HAS), and then again when Carol Berwind and I headed the service. In 2006, under my directorship, the Harvard Ambulance Billing Committee and the Board of Selectmen (BOS) reached a verbal agreement based on good faith, trust, and mutual respect to bill nonresidents only. Confirming this agreement on Aug. 11, 2006, the town’s attorney wrote the then town administrator:
“It is lawful to charge nonresidents only who receive ambulance services from the user fees, provided that there is evidence showing that ambulance services received by residents are funded by local property tax revenues or local funding sources,” and it is lawful “to charge a user fee for certain ambulance services (e.g. transportation from a motor vehicle accident to a medical care facility) but not others.”
HAS agreed with the decision with the understanding that any money collected would go back into operating the service and that a town vote would be deemed necessary and fair should the notion of billing residents ever be considered.
Then, in 2008, the Board of Selectmen informed the Harvard Ambulance Service, under Tom Philippou’s directorship, that the current board didn’t have to abide by the previous board’s decision, and universal billing would therefore be initiated, effectively denying Harvard taxpayers the right to review the many considerations involved and vote on the issue.
Why? What’s going on here? The Harvard Ambulance Service has proven to be a good steward of the town’s money, using only what is needed and returning the rest. The service runs a state-recognized-for-excellence Cadet Program, the future of which may well be compromised by billing (unless the HAS splits the cost with the high school, as Bolton does with its cadet program) along with the erosion of past strong volunteer ethics. The HAS takes pride in having served the community well for 30 years without BOS interference, its dedicated volunteers responding to calls day and night year round. Why bill when the service costs the town half of one percent to run? Why initiate a system that may not only cost the town more but may actually result in the demise of the service itself?
I urge residents to contact the Board of Selectmen with concerns: Tim Clark (vice chairman), Leo F. Blair (chairman), Peter E. Warren (clerk), Ronald V. Ricci, Lucy B. Wallace.
Alison Glass Lierhaus, EMT-P, MSPT, is the assistant director of the Harvard Ambulance Service.
