AFD Firefighters Want City-Owned EMS

The president of the Amarillo firefighters union plans to make a public pitch for the city to run its own ambulance service at today’s Amarillo City Commission meeting.

The Amarillo Fire Department could supply better emergency medical transportation service than the national provider that has requested a permit to operate within the city, James Williams, president of Amarillo Professional Firefighters Association Local 542, said Monday.

The future of ambulance service in the city became an issue for the commission in September, when Northwest Texas Healthcare System announced it is negotiating to sell its ambulance business to American Medical Resources, one of the largest emergency medical service providers in the nation.

AMR must have a permit from the Amarillo City Commission to operate here.

The company submitted its application a week ago and asked that permit negotiations be completed within 21 days. The company indicated in its letter that it intends to close its deal with Northwest in the same time period, City Manager Alan Taylor said last week.

Northwest spokeswoman Caytie Martin declined comment Monday regarding specific details of the sale negotiations.

AMR spokesman Doug Moore referred questions about the negotiations to Ted Van Horne, CEO of the company’s southern region. Van Horne did not immediately return a message Monday.

A city-run ambulance service is one option being researched for the commission, but the cost figures have not yet been completed, Taylor said.

Additional revenue sources would have to be identified to pay for such a system, he said.

A poll showed the majority of the 200 union members favor taking over ambulance duties in the city, Williams said, acknowledging that the city would have to come up with the start-up funds to pay for the operation.

“The bottom line for a private company is the dollar figure,” he said. “I know the city has to look at the cost, too … We (the union) believe we can turn a profit.”

Northwest has said it wants to shed its Amarillo Medical Services ambulance because it is losing money – $1.6 million last year.

The potential sale to AMR, a provider in cities in about 40 states, has prompted a flurry of response – both good and bad, Commissioners Brian Eades and Jim Simms said Monday.

Williams joins those critical of AMR citing, among other things, AMR’s payment of $9 million to the U.S. federal government in 2006 to resolve Department of Justice allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act.

The settlement related to allegations that the company provided discounts to Texas hospitals on transports in exchange for the referral of all or some of the facilities’ ambulance transports for discharged patients, which were billed to Medicare.

AMR issued a statement Monday calling the 2006 settlement a “corporate integrity agreement.”

“We remain committed to conducting our business in a manner consistent with applicable laws and ethical practices,” said William A. Sanger, chairman and CEO of AMR’s parent company, Emergency Medical Services Corp.

AMR’s withdrawals from a variety of communities are causes of concern, Williams said. Among documents he provided was a May 1 letter notifying the state of Indiana of plans to close the Fort Wayne, Ind., AMR service and lay off about 100 employees by June 30.

“That was because the community went to a different provider,” AMR’s Moore said. “It was not our choice.”

Williams said he has had separate conversations about a city-run ambulance service with Eades, Simms and Commissioner Ron Boyd but wants to lobby publicly for the idea today.

Simms and Eades said the commission is open to all possibilities at this stage.

Feedback from cities that have had experience with AMR will be important, Simms said.

By Karen Smith Welch
amarillo.com