March 3, 2010

Public ambulance service established

       The White River Township Fire Department is establishing a government-run ambulance service.  The department will buy two ambulances for $300,000 and run an ambulance service that will cost about $600,000 a year in expenses such as the paramedics to staff the new ambulances.  A federal grant initially will help pay for the new service, which the fire department hopes to fund entirely through bills paid by Medicare and other insurers after the grant money runs out in four years.  When White River Township firefighters are called to an emergency in their district north of Stones Crossing Road, a Rural/Metro ambulance now takes patients to the hospital and then sends them bills. Seven other Rural/Metro ambulances are stationed at fire departments or hospitals across the county. White River Township Fire Department officials decided to launch a firefighter-run ambulance service to pay department expenses with a new source of money that isn't property taxes, to improve response times and to be able to station ambulances at both the eastern and western sides of the township, Fire Chief Jeremy Pell said.  They also wanted a second ambulance because the Rural-Metro ambulance had to respond to calls outside the township an average of three times a day last year, which sometimes forced the department to call in ambulances stationed in neighboring communities.  Department officials also wanted a second ambulance in the township so that more public and private ambulances would be stationed in Johnson County and could respond to calls throughout the county, Pell said.

Need is growing

           More than one ambulance is needed to serve a community of at least 35,000 with two busy highways, Pell said. The department asked Rural/Metro if it could station a second ambulance in another township fire station, but the company requested a subsidy that fire officials blanched at, he said.  Several fire departments throughout central Indiana run their own ambulance services, including Indianapolis, Brownsburg, Avon, Plainfield, Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Wayne Township, Pike Township, Lawrence and Shelbyville.  In Johnson County, the Edinburgh Fire Department operates two ambulances, which are paid for through property taxes and offer free trips to anyone who lives or works in the town, Fire Chief Allen Smith said.  Rural/Metro stations two ambulances in Greenwood and one in Whiteland.  The company, which makes all its money by billing the people it takes to the hospital, also runs four ambulances at Johnson Memorial Hospital that respond to calls in Bargersville, Trafalgar, Amity, Prince's Lakes and other communities.  White River Township and Rural/Metro agreed to keep in Johnson County the ambulance that now is based in the township. Another ambulance has been needed to respond to a growing number of runs to Bargersville, Trafalgar, Camp Atterbury and other southern communities, Pell said.  Rural/Metro plans to move the ambulance it now has in the township somewhere else in Johnson County, possibly farther south, regional market manager Sara Duncan said.  Franklin officials are deciding whether to permanently privatize the city's ambulance service, which had been losing money and not collecting enough from patients. Recently, the mayor arranged for Seals Ambulance to take on the service while the city decides what to do.

Responding to wrecks

          White River Township doesn't expect to have the same problems collecting payments that have plagued Franklin, Pell said. Township ambulances often take victims of vehicle accidents along State Roads 37 and 135 to area hospitals, and vehicle insurance companies are reliable about making payments, he said.  The township fire department got a $650,000 federal grant for paramedics and emergency medical technicians for its own ambulance service. That money can go for only salaries and has been used to hire three full-time employees and seven part-time paramedics and emergency medical technicians, Pell said.  Insurance payments that ambulance brings in will be used to hire staff for a second ambulance that would start midyear. The department could hire as many as 12 part-time employees to serve as the crew of that ambulance but has been looking at filling as many of the positions as possible by scheduling current firefighters, Pell said.  The department has been trying to hire mostly part-time paramedics who don't get medical benefits to keep the cost down while the new service gets started, he said.  When the grant money runs out in four years, the department expects to bring in enough revenue from Medicare and insurance companies to pay the $600,000 annual operating cost of both ambulances, Pell said.  The fire department has done financial projections for 10 years and expects to at least break even on the service, he said.  The township fire protection district board must set the rates, which will determine exactly how much the department would bring in from the 2,000 runs the ambulance makes in township a year.  Fire officials have tried to use conservative assumptions, such as that township ambulances would go on 250 runs outside the township a year instead of the 1,000 runs a year the Rural/Metro Ambulance now makes.  Department officials don't project that any property tax dollars will be used to pay the operating expenses of the new service unless the state legislature changes how fire departments get their money, Pell said.

Buying vehicles

          Property tax money is being used initially. The fire department will spend about $300,000 in already budgeted property tax dollars to buy the ambulances. The department will use money that had been budgeted for a new water tanker and a replacement grass fire track that will be phased out because they're no longer needed now that the township is not as rural as it once was, Pell said.  Northern White River Township has grown more suburban, and the department now deals more with vehicle accidents than with fires in farm fields, Pell said. Fire officials decided the changed landscape meant that ambulances were a higher priority than trucks used to battle blazes in places without hydrants, he said.  To afford the new ambulances, the township also will put off replacing five sport utility vehicles that officers will use for another year. The department freed up a total of about $540,000 by putting off replacements and phasing out vehicles.  See a related story HERE.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

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