2025 Membership Drive - Join Today!

2025 Membership Drive Letter

Have you read or heard about our nearby ambulance companies in Saltsburg, Portage, Jeannette and Dubois having to close their doors after many years of service?  Funding from insurance companies has fallen short of supporting annual expenses to provide residents with emergency medical services (EMS).  When 911 is contacted, Citizens’ Ambulance Service has responded for the past 60 years!  If a person is NOT transported to the hospital, the insurance company does not provide reimbursement for that call.  One out of three calls, whether it be a vehicle accident, fire call, drug overdose or injury at work or home, result in NO reimbursement because the person is not taken to a hospital.  There is no funding from the county, state or federal government to cover ambulance calls without transport.  This deficit is why your support is essential to keep Citizens’ Ambulance Service solvent. 

 Since 2004, reimbursements from insurance companies have only increased 27% over a 20-year period equating to a mere 1.35% per year increase.  Expenses have increased 72% over the same 20-year period or 3.6% a year.  While our increased expenditures have fallen in line with the cost of living over this period, our revenues from billable services to insurance companies have not.  In 2023 only 66% of our revenue was provided by insurance companies requiring the remaining 34% to be covered with alternate funding.  Where can this alternate funding be found?  Now more than ever, memberships, donations and grants MUST be increased to fill the void.

 Citizens’ Ambulance Service constantly critiques their operations to defray costs while maintaining the highest level of quality patient care to remain the premier EMS provider they have been since 1964.  This includes:

·         Research and acquisition of pre-owned ambulances in good condition.

·         Implementation of a new billing software system to streamline communication with insurance companies to process claims quickly and efficiently.

·         The Board of Directors recently acquired the for-profit operating company (Ambulance Service Management Company) and will transition to a fully not-for-profit model January 1, 2025.

 Your purchase of a membership for 2025 will help Citizens’ meet the cost of readiness and be there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for another 60 years.  Last year only 13% of the households in Indiana County opted for a membership.  It’s evident that number of memberships won’t fill the 34% of unfunded expenses.

Citizens’ Ambulance Service is deeply grateful for tax deductible contributions from individuals and businesses in the past years.  With such generosity we are able to maintain affordable membership costs.  The Board of Directors of Citizens’ Ambulance Service is committed to being there in your time of need!

Dr. David Piper, President            Sandi Gillette, Vice President        Doug Gradwell, Treasurer Rich Palilla, Secretary Mark Bartolini DeWayne Dills Ron Moreau Dr. Richard Neff Justin Schawl Bill Staffen Ryan Staats Rob Walbeck