Baker County Ambulance Service Transitioning to MetroWest

By Shannon Weidemann (McKone) on Monday, September 12th, 2022 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News

BAKER COUNTY – (Original Release from the City Manager of Baker City), Last Wednesday, Baker County signed a five-year contract with Metro West to provide ambulance services in the Baker County Baker ASA. As we approach October 1, 2022, Metro West is increasing its presence in the ASA. We appreciate their work and willingness to assist even before a contract had been finalized. With a finalized contract Baker City, LifeFlight, and Metro West can now complete preparations for transitioning FireMed customers over to Metro West. I know lots of questions about FireMed and the transition are circulating. The situation with the FireMed memberships has evolved as time has passed. Right now, if you have a FireMed membership, it will automatically roll into a LifeGuard membership for ground transport. Air transport will remain with LifeFlight. If your membership is currently expiring, you should still be able to sign up with FireMed until the end of September, and then the membership will roll into a LifeGuard membership with the other memberships.

I anticipate MetroWest LifeGuard will soon become available in this area and people will be able to sign up directly once that is available. We do have a handful of lifetime FireMed memberships which will be reimbursed on a prorated amount. Those individuals can then decide whether they want to sign up for LifeGuard. As mentioned, this is an evolving situation we are working to manage and coordinate now that a contract between Baker County and Metro West is in place.