MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. -- It has been a difficult week for thousands of low-income Medicaid recipients in Westchester County.They've missed or skipped medical appointments due to a dispute over ambulette reimbursement rates.'Seniors don't like changes,' Pamela Demont-Sims said.She said change this week has been stressful and expensive. She uses a wheelchair and needs an ambulette company to pick her up in Mount Vernon and take her to medical appointments.
Then on Wednesday, in order to go for an important medical test, she paid Premier out of pocket '$120, so I said okay.''People could actually die. We have dialysis patients who aren't getting to dialysis,' said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, who chairs the Health Committee.Paulin said she believes the Westchester ambulette firms have a strong point in their dispute over reimbursement rates.'Nassau and Suffolk get much higher rates than we do in Westchester, much higher rates.