Pennsylvania
Proposed Pennsylvania bill aims to save 911 EMS providers
When someone calls 911, they expect an ambulance to arrive quickly. But across Pennsylvania, that expectation is increasingly at risk as more emergency medical services agencies shut down due to financial strain.
According to Plum EMS Director of Operations Brian Maloney, every time an ambulance responds to a call, it costs the agency about $850 just to get out the door.
“Over the past 20 years, we’ve been in crisis,” Maloney said, “but now we are literally falling apart.”
The problem isn’t just the high cost, it’s the lack of reimbursement. In some cases, with commercial insurance companies, they will send payment directly to the patient instead of the EMS provider, and that money doesn’t always make it back to the agency.
“In my community, 38 percent of those checks were kept by the patient,” Maloney said. “In three years, Plum EMS, which is a small organization, lost a quarter of a million dollars.”
Pennsylvania has lost 52 EMS agencies in just the last two years. The risk for more is always there.
State Rep. Jill Cooper, R-Westmoreland County, is leading a bipartisan effort to change that. Her proposal, House Bill 1152, would require commercial insurance companies to directly reimburse EMS agencies for 911 calls they respond to.
“I feel an obligation to the seniors and people in my district,” Cooper said. “When they call and expect an ambulance in 8 to 10 minutes, they should get one, in order to save their life.”
EMS services in Pennsylvania do not receive tax dollars for operations, so timely reimbursement is vital. Maloney told Channel 11 that no agency wants to have to go after a patient to get a bill paid.
Supporters of the bill said it would only increase insurance premiums by around $10 but could make a major difference in keeping EMS agencies open.
“It’s causing EMS companies to go out of business,” Maloney said. “Just getting an ambulance ready to go costs money, and they’re losing it every time they respond. This bill is one step toward solving that problem.”
House Bill 1152 has nearly 50 cosponsors and is currently in committee, awaiting a vote.
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Pennsylvania
Pa. House committee advances bill to require radon testing and mitigation in schools
Pennsylvania
Suspect arrested for shooting near basketball court in Elkins Park, Pa.
ABINGTON TWP., Pa. (WPVI) — Police have arrested a suspect who they say fired shots at a vehicle near a crowded basketball court in Montgomery County.
Jamell Whitmore, 18, of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, was arrested on Thursday.
The shooting happened on March 22 near a basketball court on the 300 block of Cadwalader Avenue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.
Shooting near Elkins Park basketball courts sends stray bullet into home
Police said multiple callers reported hearing gunfire around 8:15 p.m. and witnessed a large group of people run from the area behind the McKinley Firehouse.
As a vehicle drove by, one of the men in the group, identified by police as Whitmore, ran off to the parking lot to retrieve a gun and began firing multiple shots towards the vehicle.
Police say it’s unclear if the vehicle was hit, but one of the bullets struck a nearby home.
No one in the home was injured.
Police said no innocent bystanders or those involved in the shooting were injured.
The motive for the shooting remains unknown.
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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania-born indie rockers Tigers Jaw return with new album release
The chorus for the song “Primary Colors” was something Walsh wrote years ago, with the song’s outro originally being used as a verse.
“And something just wasn’t quite clicking, and everything that I tried felt kind of forced,” Walsh said. “We were all just like, ‘Yeah, there’s something here, but it’s not quite doing what I think it has the potential to do.’”
The band then started toying with the dynamics between the verses and the chorus.
“It just unlocked something for me in the idea where I was like, ‘Wow, this kind of quiet, loud, quiet, loud format really works well with this song,’” Walsh said. “So yeah, it just transformed it instantly into an idea that felt a lot stronger.”
The album was recorded with Grammy-winning producer Will Yip, a relationship still budding from their 2014 album, “Charmer.” Collins said the new album’s sound is “as true as we could be to playing the record live.”
“I wasn’t as tied to the tones that have classically been Tigers Jaw because I think at this point, I’ve just come to this realization that no matter what, if we’re making it, it is Tigers Jaw,” Collins said.
The new album has a “palpable energy” that shares the same spirit as their earlier records, Walsh said. And while “tastes evolve,” the band followed “what feels good.”
“This is the best representation of the band at the time, and it’s almost like a snapshot of us as artists, as people, as a creative entity over this time in our career,” he said.
“Lost On You” is out now through Hopeless Records and is available on vinyl, CD and various streaming platforms.
On April 16, Tigers Jaw will perform at Union Transfer at 8 p.m. They will be supported by Hot Flash Heat Wave and Creeks, the solo project of Balance and Composure vocalist and guitarist Jon Simmons, who is from Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
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