By EMS1 Staff
GOLDSBORO, N.C. — Johnston Ambulance Service, which provides non-emergency transportation, dialysis and wound care, announced that it is shutting down at the end of Wednesday.
The service, which employs around 400 people and serves thousands in Wayne County, has been unable to collect money from insurance companies, the government and other payers.
Owner Maynard Price told WRAL News that his company hit the breaking point when it could not make an upcoming workers’ compensation payment.
“It is devastating. It will be devastating to the employees, but it also will be devastating to the state,” Price said. “When you take the number of trips that we run out of each day - it is going to be a huge, huge problem.”
JAS began in 1971 with only one office, and eventually became the largest private ambulance service in North Carolina. JAS ambulance divisions served 14 counties in Eastern and Central North Carolina.
WRAL reports that JAS is the fourth private ambulance company from the area to shut down in the last year.