Committee studies possibility of ambulance district for Pettis County

Local city, county, health care and emergency management officials discussed options for possibly establishing a county ambulance district Tuesday at the first meeting of the Sedalia-Pettis County Emergency Medical Services Committee.

The committee was formed after two companies, current local ambulance services provider American Paramedical Services Inc., and American Medical Response, requested subsidized contracts in their responses to a formal request for a proposal by Sedalia and Pettis County in December.

The city and county had been contracting with APSI month by month to provide services since the original contract expired in February 2009, until they recently extended a one-year, unsubsidized agreement with APSI and established the EMS committee to explore options for providing ambulance services in the future.

“We all talked about what we needed to do to make sure we had EMS in the county, and we knew that subsidy was a minimum that would probably increase each year, so we started looking at our options,” said Sedalia-Pettis County Emergency Management Agency Director Dave Clippert.

The committee — which is composed of representatives from a variety of local governments, health care providers, police and fire departments and the emergency management agency — met for the first time Tuesday to set bylaws and discuss the potential for establishing a tax-supported ambulance district to serve Pettis County.

Clippert, who is committee chair, gave a presentation on the projected costs required to operate a local ambulance district and potential revenue generated through various tax initiatives. He said the preliminary expense estimates were developed using an average of the proposals submitted by APSI and AMR.

The estimated operating costs for the district, which included personnel, vehicle maintenance, utilities, insurance, equipment and supply expenses, would total more than $1.31 million annually, Clippert said. The cost projections did not include anticipated startup expenses such as purchasing a building and ambulances, contracting 911 services or hiring a district director.

“It’s not cheap to run an ambulance service in any way, shape or form,” Clippert said. “We’re talking about a lot of money.”

Sedalia City Administrator Frank Myers and Mark Hirshberg, chief operating officer of Bothwell Regional Health Center, said in addition to startup costs, the board would have to develop a reserve fund in the district’s initial years to ensure that unexpected ambulance maintenance or replacements costs could be covered.

Annual revenue collected from private, third party, Medicaid and Medicare payments was projected to total about $1.38 million, Clippert said. But several committee members noted that Medicare contributions, which typically fluctuate yearly, have been consistently declining in recent years.

Clippert also presented estimates on revenue generation through potential tax initiatives.

The figures showed the district could collect about $1.23 million through a quarter-cent sales tax measure, $2.46 million through a half-cent sales tax or about $2.28 million by adding a quarter of a percent to personal property and real estate taxes.

Portions of Houstonia, Cole Camp and Windsor were excluded from the estimates because they are already served by other ambulance districts and would not be affected by the proposal, Clippert said.

In order to impose a tax to support an ambulance district, voters must approve it through a ballot initiative.

“If that’s the route we’re going to go, we’re looking at getting it on as an April ballot issue,” Clippert said. “But there’s a long way to go, and April is fast approaching, so I don’t know if that will be realistic.”

Doug Briscoe, owner of APSI, recommended the committee first decide on the scope of services that would be provided — including the number of ambulances, stations and staff members that would be needed — to help determine funding requirements.

Clippert stressed that the committee intends to explore all options for providing ambulance services before making any recommendations to city and county governments. He said the figures presented Tuesday were only preliminary estimates intended to provide a glimpse of what options will be available.

“This was just a very preliminary idea of what we would be able to do,” Clippert said.

The committee is scheduled to meet again on Sept. 15.