By Eric Fleischauer
The Decatur Daily
DECATUR, Ala. — In a 3-2 vote, the Decatur EMS Committee on Friday recommended revocation of Decatur Emergency Medical Services Inc.'s license to operate in the city.
The City Council is expected to make a final ruling at its March 3 meeting.
If the council approves the recommendation, Healthcare Investment Group Inc., doing business as First Response, will hold a monopoly on ambulance services in Decatur.
It’s a monopoly that Decatur Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Ted McKelvey, the EMS coordinator, does not expect would last long.
“We know the market in Decatur is big enough for two operations,” McKelvey said. “Until recently, both ambulance services made a reasonable profit.”
McKelvey told the committee that DEMSI failed to meet the city requirement of keeping two ambulances in service at all times and a third ambulance in service 12 hours a day since a work stoppage Feb. 7 left DEMSI with no ambulances in service. On most days since Feb. 7, DEMSI has had two ambulances in service. Occasionally it has dropped to one ambulance. It has never maintained a third ambulance for the required 12-hour day, McKelvey said.
During that time, DEMSI response times also have fallen below city requirements.
The city requires ambulances to respond to 90 percent of emergency calls in the city limits within eight minutes. Since Feb. 7, McKelvey said, DEMSI has responded within eight minutes to only 62 percent of emergency calls. During the same timeframe, First Response responded to more than 93 percent of its emergency calls within eight minutes.
DEMSI, represented in past proceedings by attorney Barney Lovelace, had no lawyer at the EMS Committee hearing. Its sole spokesperson was Tessa Green, who identified herself as DEMSI’s executive assistant.
Green spent much of her time arguing that McKelvey had failed to provide her with timely notice of the hearing.
“I feel we were not given ample time to address the issue,” Green said.
She said one copy of a letter outlining McKelvey’s allegations and giving notice of the EMS hearing went to DEMSI owner Roger Stanmore’s home, but he was out of town.
“When I finally got the information, it was because someone told me we were going to a meeting,” Green said. “It was from an article in The Decatur Daily. I found the article in The Decatur Daily, and that’s when I found out this meeting was going to occur.”
She said she did not learn details of the meeting until Tuesday.
Assistant City Attorney Chip Alexander said McKelvey’s allegations and the notice of hearing were sent to every address the city had. He said the notices were sent and received within time limits set by the city ordinance.
Green’s other argument was that DEMSI’s financial problems were because of a clerical mistake with Medicare and will be resolved Monday.
“With the whole staff leaving work on the 7th, yeah, we’re having revenue issues,” Green said. “That is mainly because of Medicare. We get the majority of our money from Medicare.”
Green said DEMSI was supposed to file a state board license with Medicare by Dec. 31. When it failed to file the license, all Medicare revenue stopped.
She said DEMSI finally solved the problem with Medicare on Feb. 10, but there was another two-week delay before DEMSI could receive Medicare reimbursements.
“We finally are going to get revenue in (on Monday) so we can pay our employees,” Green said. “Some have been paid, but since the revenue actually stopped, it put us in a very bad predicament.”
She said within five to seven days, DEMSI should be able to meet the city’s three-ambulance requirement.
“We have so many dedicated employees who are still there backing us up because they love Decatur,” Green said. “They love working there. I’m here speaking on their behalf. I don’t want to see Decatur (EMS) go away, and our employees don’t either.”
EMS Committee Chairman Larry Sullivan asked Green why DEMSI did not obtain a loan when the Medicare payments stopped. She said she has been trying to obtain a loan and finally signed a loan contract that day.
“I’m just waiting for it to be deposited,” Green said of the loan.
Green also said a merger with another company is pending, although she gave no details.
Morgan County 911 Director Ryan Welty, a member of the EMS Committee, made a motion for revocation of DEMSI’s license. Decatur Police Chief Ed Taylor seconded the motion. Decatur Fire and Rescue Division Chief Janice Johnson also voted for revocation.
The dissenting votes came from Dr. Tom-meka Archinard and Morgan County Emergency Management Agency Director Eddy Hicks.
For 14 years, DEMSI was the sole provider of emergency ambulance services in Decatur. In May 2012, the City Council authorized First Response to compete with DEMSI. Average response times have dropped significantly since the competition began.
After the meeting, Archinard said she voted against revocation because she does not think having a single ambulance service works.
“It would make sense not to have a monopoly on the service,” Archinard said. “I think it’s important to have as many providers out there as possible. Experience has told me that when there’s only one company, it’s hard to continue a healthy competition that drives up the level of quality.”
Mayor Don Kyle did not return calls Friday, but he said last week that attracting another ambulance service should not be difficult. He said other qualified ambulance companies had approached the city in 2012 when it gave licenses to DEMSI and First Response.
“They pulled out once they found there were going to be two other providers,” Kyle said. “They didn’t think three was viable. I think if one of the two goes out, other viable businesses would have an interest.”
David Childers, director of operations at First Response, said after the meeting his company would not reduce its efforts if it ends up with a monopoly.
“We’re very passionate about providing the best possible service to the city of Decatur,” Childers said. “First Response will not become complacent.”