Editor’s Note: Part 2 of a 2-day series about rural ambulance service.
By Bill Grimes
Effingham Daily News
EFFINGHAM, Ill. — Jim Reeves was once an aspiring ambulance provider in Effingham County.
Waving the banner of free enterprise, Reeves challenged the county’s exclusive contract with Altamont Ambulance Inc., even after he was elected to the Effingham County Board in 2008.
Shortly after his election, he sued the board for the right to participate in the local ambulance business. Reeves ultimately settled with the county out of court and moved his operation to Texas, where his MedicOne Medical Response operation employs 500 people in four states.
His case underscores the headaches that Effingham County has long struggled with in providing ambulance service to the residents within its largely rural boundaries. County officials today remain conflicted about how the contract with Altamont Ambulance should be interpreted.
County Board Chairman Jim Niemann said the county is unhappy with the service Altamont Ambulance provides.
“We have a compliance issue with the contract,” Niemann said. “According to the people on our side of the table who know about these things, our standard of care is woefully lacking compared to other counties.”
Neither Niemann nor other county officials would provide specifics about how the standard of care is “woefully lacking.” But Niemann said that Altamont Ambulance owner Terry White has been ducking repeated attempts to meet with the county over its concerns.
The county board took steps in November that would allow other ambulance companies to set up shop within the county to transfer patients from one facility to another in non-emergency situations.
Altamont Ambulance, which also uses the name Effingham City-County Ambulance, calls that change a breach of the contract it signed with the county in 2004 and reworked in 2010. White has filed a lawsuit against the county, arguing that the change “presents a grave and imminent threat” to the company’s continued business health.
White said in the suit that “scrutiny and criticism” of his company has increased since board turnover with the 2012 election.
Moreover, White claimed the Ambulance Oversight Committee formed to keep tabs on the company’s performance contains a number of members who have personal animosity toward him.
Committee member David Budde, director of emergency services at Lake Land College, declined to discuss specific issues the committee has with White. But he echoed Niemann in saying that White is not as cooperative as committee members would like.
“There have been several issues we have tried to work on, but they don’t seem to be addressed in a timely manner,” Budde said.
Committee member Mike DePoister said White has been a bit more cooperative in recent months.
“I will say he is doing better than he was,” said DePoister. He disputed White’s contention that the committee has personal animosity toward the ambulance company owner.
The lawsuit
Judge James Eder recently issued a temporary restraining order barring the county board from implementing the amended ordinance passed Nov. 17, or putting into effect any “letters of authorization” that would allow other ambulance companies to do the non-emrgency transfers of patients. Altamont Ambulance thinks it is entitled to those transfers under the terms of its agreement with the county, according to the lawsuit.
The agreement between Altamont Ambulance and the county expires Nov. 30, 2017, after being extended by a lame-duck county board in 2012.
Eder set a hearing in the case for 1 p.m. Dec. 29. At that hearing, the judge will decide if a temporary injunction in favor of Altamont Ambulance is in order. Altamont Ambulance wants the court to kill the Nov. 17 version of the ordinance, and a finding that the county breached its contract with the company by allowing other companies to provide patient transportation not routed through an emergency dispatch center.
Reeves, the would-be ambulance provider now operating out of Texas, thinks the county board made a mistake trying to open the door to multiple ambulance providers for non-emergency transfers.
“I think the system is fine the way it is, and the county board is making a grave mistake,” he said.
In fact, Reeves says the successful implementation of the amended ordinance could put White out of business by forcing him to split inter-facility transfers with other companies.
Reeves said it’s expensive to provide ambulance service. He estimated the annual cost of keeping an ambulance properly staffed and maintained at about $500,000.
“When you take away their transfers, how can (Altamont Ambulance) remain viable for their 911 calls?” Reeves asked.
Reeves, who says he has no interest in setting up shop in Effingham County, said the county board made a good decision by amending the original ambulance ordinance in 2010. Part of that deal was the formation of an Ambulance Oversight Committee that is supposed to serve as a liaison between White and the board.
Reeves is adamant that he will not solicit business in Effingham County, but other providers are interested.
Abbott EMS, a St. Louis-based subsidiary of American Medical Response, has been seeking both EMT Basics and paramedics to work in the Effingham area.
AMR corporate spokesman Ron Cunningham said his company is not seeking to make emergency calls within the county.
“It’s not the kind of thing you can come in and say we can do a better job,” Cunningham said. “We would be seeking (inter-facility transfer) opportunities.
“We’re not going to come in and boot out somebody with a contract,” he added.
———
©2014 the Effingham Daily News (Effingham, Ill.)