Baker City staff are working with officials for the new ambulance provider to help local residents transfer their ground ambulance memberships and avoid any lapse in coverage.

Starting Oct. 1, Bay Cities Ambulance, part of the Metro West Ambulance company, became the official ambulance provider for Baker City and much of the rest of Baker County.

Baker County, which by Oregon law is responsible for ensuring ambulance coverage, hired the company in early June after the Baker City Council, in late March, notified county commissioners that the Baker City Fire Department would cease ambulance service after Sept. 30.

The city was part of the FireMed program, which sells memberships that pay for ground ambulance transports.

The transfer doesn’t affect LifeFlight air ambulance transport, and people who have memberships in that network will continue to be covered, City Manager Jonathan Cannon wrote in an email sent to FireMed subscribers on Sept. 30.

The situation is different for ground ambulance transports because Bay Cities Ambulance has a separate program, called LifeGuard.

In his email, Cannon wrote that current FireMed members whose subscription expires after Sept. 30, 2022, will automatically transfer to the LifeGuard program.

FireMed members whose subscription expired on Sept. 30 will need to contact Bay Cities Ambulance before Oct. 15 to enroll in LifeGuard. A phone number and website will be released as soon as it’s available, Cannon wrote in his email.

“Bay Cities Ambulance has indicated they will work with customers who might need an ambulance but have not completed the LifeGuard enrollment process during the first part of October as if there is no lapse in coverage,” Cannon wrote.

Local residents who have a lifetime membership in FireMed will receive a prorated refund from Baker City. They will also need to enroll in LifeGuard to maintain coverage for ground transport, through the phone number or website that is not yet active.

In his email, Cannon noted that some residents who called Metro West were told that LifeGuard memberships are not available in Baker City. Cannon wrote that the call center for Metro West was not set up to answer questions about ground transport coverage in Baker County, but Bay Cities Ambulance is training its staff to answer those questions.