Cataldo Ambulance Service, the company that answers Chelsea’s 911 ambulance calls, is being sold to Coastal Medical Transportation Systems of Hyannis, according to a notice Coastal filed with the state’s Health Policy Commission. The proposed closing date is November 30.
Coastal, through a newly formed subsidiary called Coastal Medical CAS Acquisition LLC, “will acquire all outstanding stock of Cataldo Ambulance Service, Inc. for cash at closing,” the notice says. Cataldo would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Coastal Ambulance LLC. The public form does not give a price. Coastal’s president and CEO, Alexandre Theoharidis, signed it on October 5.
What the companies promise
The stated goal is “to combine two ambulance providers with complementary, contiguous service areas.” The notice makes several commitments:
- “No base will close.”
- All Cataldo clinical staff, including EMTs, paramedics, registered nurses and community paramedics, “will be offered continued employment.”
- “All existing municipal and facility agreements will be honored on current terms.”
- “No licensed vehicles or clinical staffing will be reduced,” and “no changes in Health Care Services are anticipated.”
Coastal says access “is expected to improve” and that clinical protocols and quality programs will be combined “on a best-of-both basis,” subject to approval by hospital medical directors and the state’s regional EMS offices.
Two of the biggest
Coastal says it employs more than 1,000 people at more than 26 bases in southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Metro Boston and Central Massachusetts. It runs more than 170 ambulances at peak hours and answered more than 170,000 requests for service last year. It bought Fallon Ambulance and LifeLine Ambulance in 2022 and Alert Ambulance of Fall River in May. When Patch reported the Alert deal, it described Coastal as the largest ambulance company in Massachusetts by headcount and Cataldo, with about 900 employees, as the next largest.
Cataldo, based in Somerville, lists 16 communities on its website for 911 ambulance service: Chelsea, Everett, Revere, Winthrop, Malden, Medford, Somerville, Lynn, Salem, Peabody, Wakefield, Holyoke, Salisbury, Newburyport, West Newbury and Boxford.
Prices and the state review
The notice argues that the deal will not raise prices because most transports are paid at rates “set by others”: the federal Medicare ambulance fee schedule, MassHealth rates, and “municipal contract rates established through competitive public procurement.” In January, a Medford official told that city’s council that emergency ambulance contracts are exempt from the usual public bidding rules. Chelsea has not published the terms of its own contract with Cataldo.
Under state law, health care providers above a revenue threshold must notify the Health Policy Commission at least 60 days before a major deal closes. The commission can ask for more information within 30 days. Within 30 days of a complete notice, it decides whether to open a cost and market impact review, a deeper study of how a deal could affect prices and access. As of October 5, Coastal said it had not filed anything about the deal with any other state or federal agency. It said it will notify the state Department of Public Health’s Office of Emergency Medical Services, which licenses ambulance services, of the change in ownership.
What it means for Chelsea
If the companies keep their promises, Chelsea residents who call 911 should see the same ambulances and the same crews, now owned by a larger company. Cataldo has served Chelsea since at least the 1990s, when it fought the city in court over the contract. Nothing in this year’s City Council packets mentions the sale, or what Chelsea’s contract says about a change in ownership.
This week we argued that Chelsea should publish its ambulance response times and study running its own ambulance service. The sale gives the city a natural moment to do both. The full notice is on the Health Policy Commission’s website.