By Brooke McAfee
The Evening News and the Tribune
FLOYD COUNTY, Ind. — Floyd County officials continue to consider options for the future of ambulance service, including a potential countywide EMS program.
Last year, the county’s EMS task force issued a recommendation for a standalone, countywide ambulance service. Currently, the county contracts with AmeriPro Health and Highlander Fire Protection District for EMS with contracts running through 2026.
Floyd County Commissioner Jason Sharp feels it is time for the county to “take charge of our own system.”
“I like the idea of being able to ensure clinical excellence, oversight of the budget by the council and someone running the agency that’s chosen by the commissioners,” he said.
He said with the financial uncertainty associated with the state’s new tax reform law, his priority is the “services that we are expected to provide very strong and very solid, and this is one of those services that is essential.”
Floyd County Councilwoman Denise Konkle said she thinks “things are going pretty well the way they are” with AmeriPro and Highlander.
“I would like to see us look at the cost of continuing what we’re doing versus what you are suggesting because cost is going to be one of the main decision points here, so I think we really need to take a look at that,” she said.
Sharp asked Konkle to describe her metric of “doing well.” Konkle said she spoke with Highlander, and the department seems “to be on top of everything.”
“From what I hear, AmeriPro also seems to be doing things pretty well,” she said. “I don’t know if there are tweaks we need to work out in the services that we are providing, then I think we need to work the tweaks out, but I think we need to look at the numbers. That’s where I’m at. Let’s look at the numbers.”
Al Knable , president of the Floyd County Commissioners, said the county will need to receive input from Highlander leadership on whether the district wants to continue providing fire-based EMS, and he noted that it does not have a permanent fire chief at this time.
“If we don’t have buy-in from that lead official out there, then it’s not going to be able to continue as is,” he said.
Sharp noted the public safety LIT that provides a funding mechanism for EMS and other services. The LIT went into effect this year, and based on the new law, it will go away in 2028, he said.
The proposed countywide system involves writing off leftover costs after insurance using this funding mechanism, according to Sharp.
“Because essentially, the people are already paying for the service, so they charge the insurance, and whatever’s left over is written off the service,” he said. “That’s what I want to see here. That’s a very clear return on investment. That’s something we can’t get from the other system.”
Both start-up and continuing costs are considerations for an EMS service. Sharp said if Highlander were to move away from ambulance service, the county could potentially buy back ambulances the Floyd County Council directed to the fire district.
“If we were to get those back if they weren’t going to provide the service anymore and [we] buy back some of the equipment they already purchased — because they bought some really nice equipment — that could help reduce ultimately what our start-up cost would be,” Sharp said. “And it actually would be very mutually beneficial to them because they’re sitting on quite a mountain of debt right now.”
Konkle said the county needs to have a better understanding of how the new legislation will affect taxes. There will be a significant restructuring of local income taxes as part of the new tax reform law, including the dissolution of existing LITs and new ones taking their place.
She wants the council to meet with the commissioners for an in-depth discussion on the financials, including projections for different scenarios. She said her goal is to make “data-based decisions.”
“We can’t make decisions one by one,” she said. “We really need to sit here with all the pieces of the puzzle in place and make decisions with all of those pieces to the puzzle put on the table.”
Knable said there are some services he believes “we need to be ready to pay a premium for.”
“It’s not always about the least expensive way to get from point A to point B,” he said. “ Often it is...it comes down to where you place these kinds of services on the hierarchy.”
Floyd County Council President Danny Short said the county already has projections for the proposed countywide EMS options, as well as estimates from its financial advisor on the new legislation.
“So we’ve got a jumpstart on that, so we’re not necessarily walking in blind to a plan,” he said.
Sharp noted that the expanding capabilities of EMS will save lives.
“And when someone you love goes blue and they can’t breathe or their heart stops, I’m sure that you want the best, the brightest and the top-of-the-line equipment that you can ever possibly imagine on that day, and that day happens thousands of times.”
Konkle responded that we “all want that — every one of us.”
“Every one of us wants that, but we’ve got to [get] some numbers,” she said. “That’s our fiduciary responsibility to the county to put the numbers together to see what can be afforded with what we have, or do we have to raise taxes, or do we have the money to do it with what we have now, and it can’t be piecemeal.”
Sharp said he wants to make decisions “before we’re forced to enter into another contract,” and he emphasized that “at some point, somebody’s got to take some action.”
“There’s no need to kill something with discussion by committee for a time going on and on and on,” Sharp said. “We’ve discussed multiple aspects of this going forward, and I’ve said this a lot of times — one of the most difficult things about getting a service up and running is getting the equipment.”
“Going and buying an ambulance is not like going out to your neighborhood dealership and buying a Toyota . Some of these — depending on what manufacturer you use —some of these things can take a year and a half to be delivered.”
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