BRATTLEBORO — Rescue Inc., which provides community-based emergency medical services to 15 towns in the greater Brattleboro area, is raffling off a 2013 Subaru XV Crosstrek to help finance the upgrade of key emergency response equipment.
The annual car raffle kicks off during the Brattleboro Goes Fourth Independence Day Parade.
Rescue Inc. is also offering a subscription membership package to area residents.
Raffle tickets are $50 each, or three for $100. The winning ticket holder will have the option of taking a $15,000 cash payment in lieu of the vehicle, which is provided at cost by Brattleboro Subaru.
Rescue Inc. is an independent, nonprofit organization, not a government agency, notes Mark Considine, chief of operations. Although the organization receives contributions from member towns, it requires such fundraising efforts to make ends meet, he said.
“Our reimbursements from insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid simply don't repay the cost of providing 24/7 coverage over such a wide area,” he said.
Subscriptions allow residents to pay a flat annual fee to receive coverage for the cost of certain ambulance services not covered by insurance. The fee is $50 for people who have medical insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, and $100 if any household member does not have insurance, and covers up to three medically necessary local emergency calls and up to three physician-approved, medically necessary, local non-emergency transfers over the 12-month period from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014.
For those with insurance, the subscription pays qualifying balances that insurance does not pay. For those without insurance, the subscription could pay the entire balance.
Considine said that for someone who had three ambulance calls in a year, the total cost could be $1,500 or more.
“For an uninsured person, our subscription plan could pay the full amount on a qualifying bill,” he said. “For an insured person, their plan may still require a patient co-pay, or the cost of the ambulance service might go toward an insurance deductible – but again, with a subscription they may not have to pay anything, if the call falls under the subscription parameters.”
Considine said that the raffle, the subscription drive, and other fundraising efforts by Rescue Inc. help replace an ambulance every 18 months and purchase state-of-the-art cardiac monitors and defibrillators.