By Brooke McAfee
The Evening News and the Tribune
FLOYD COUNTY, Ind. — Floyd County officials are considering a new countywide EMS model that would involve the county’s fire territory.
The Floyd County Commissioners and Floyd County Council heard details about the proposed ambulance system at Tuesday’s joint meeting, which featured a presentation from EMS consultant Jeff Dickson.
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Floyd County Commissioner Jason Sharp said the proposed model would involve Highlander Fire Protection District joining the new Floyd County Fire Territory, which includes the Georgetown Township Fire Protection District and New Albany Township Fire.
The fire territory was approved earlier this year by the fire boards and is set to take effect in 2026. If Highlander Fire joined, the idea is to expand the fire territory’s service to include EMS.
“There’s a lot of discussions going on right now at a bunch of different levels, and so far those discussions are going well,” Sharp said. “That’s between even the fire union, the administrators of both the territory and Highlander, and the fire territory board and the fire district boards.”
The proposed model is a separate EMS division within the Floyd County Fire Territory.
“The EMS workers would be employees of the fire territory, and they would work through their own EMS administration to the fire chief of the fire territory,” Dickson said. “Those two administrations would work together as far as trainings, operations and any communications.”
The system would offer a “very stable platform for providing not just fire but emergency medical services,” Sharp said.
“Standardizing the fire department’s command structure, the training regiment, the equipment — all these things will be beneficial as we go long-term. And all these departments have always had to lean on each other to a degree, so it makes sense to bring them together under the same fold.”
Personnel would either work in fire or EMS. The service model is the same as every fire-based EMS system in Louisville, according to Dickson.
“It would be a single-role service, meaning that EMS workers work the ambulance and firefighters work the fire apparatus,” he said. “There is no intermingling of the two. It stabilizes EMS. It stabilizes the fire department.”
Floyd County’s current EMS agreements with Highlander Fire and AmeriPro Health run through 2026, so the goal would be to have a new system in place by 2027, according to Sharp. The process to establish the proposed EMS system would include public hearings and votes in early 2026.
“So this thing wouldn’t even be voted on territory-wise until sometime next year, but we would really want some intent from all the people involved that this is the direction that they’re going to go,” Sharp said.
Sharp said AmeriPro, a private ambulance provider, has been “good community partners and worked with us very well, but at the end of the day, we want to bring a stable platform that’s going to provide top-notch service to the members of our community.”
“Because I think they deserve that,” he said.
The system would be overseen by the Floyd County Commissioners, who would select the EMS chief. There would also be a medical director, deputy EMS chief and medical training officer.
Dickson said the EMS model would involve 27 employees.
It would also involve a Mobile Integrated Health and community paramedicine program, which focuses on providing services for the elderly, homebound and underserved, Dickson said.
“The goal of MIH is to decrease hospital readmissions and to connect patients with local outreach services,” Dickson said. “At a minimum, the agency would ensure that at least three people were licensed and certified as a community paramedic while performing this service.”
Dickson said EMS is the “only emergency service that consistently generates its own revenue.”
“In 2024, Harrison County, Indiana, completed 4,868 transports,” he said. “They generated $3.1 million, which is about $636 net revenue per transport. Scott County, Indiana, which is 66% Medicaid-funded, they transported about 3,800. They generated about $2.6 million.”
“So the revenue generated from EMS would largely pay for itself. EMS will pay for itself if it’s done right. The initial cost for startup is obviously going to be more expensive, but as that subsidy kicks in with that reimbursement, EMS begins to stand on their own two feet, and that subsidy requirement can be decreased, and EMS can become self-funded at that point.”
Dickson also noted that patients will not be getting an “exorbitant amount” billed after what the insurance pays.
Floyd County’s proposed ambulance service would also become certified as a training institute, which would also serve as a revenue source for the department.
Highlander already has three ambulances, but the goal is to obtain a total of five additional ambulances so there would be a rotation of vehicles, including four 24/7 ambulances, according to Dickson.
At last Tuesday’s meeting, the Floyd County Commissioners reserved the option to buy the five ambulances, which would cost about $280,000 each.
Sharp feels that there is “a lot of support” for the proposed EMS model.
“I feel like once we’ve put out there what we’re hoping to accomplish with these systems, it’s gaining more and more traction,” he said.
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