Charles City, Floyd County likely to stick with AMR ambulance service for now, at increasing annual cost

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

After asking if other ambulance services were interested in providing coverage in Floyd County and getting few responses, the Floyd County Ambulance Commission is looking at a three-year contract with AMR ambulance service that could cost an additional $525,000 over that period.

The commission met Wednesday morning via teleconference to discuss the latest developments on the issue of ambulance coverage that started more than a year ago when AMR said it was losing money providing service here.

The group discussed a contract that calls for a $150,000 cash payment to AMR, split between Charles City and Floyd County, in the new 2020-21 fiscal year that begins July 1, then $175,000 in fiscal year 2021-22 and $200,000 in fiscal year 2022-23.

The contract would provide advanced level life support service (with paramedics) and basic level life support service (with EMTs) throughout the city and county, and would potentially also provide more service to cover transfers from Floyd County Medical Center for patients who need a more advanced level of care at other hospitals.

In addition to the annual cash subsidies, AMR would get to use space in city facilities for its office, instead of renting space elsewhere as it does now.

The ambulance commission is made up of representatives from Charles City, Floyd County and the Floyd County Medical Center.

Steve Diers, the Charles City city administrator who has been negotiating with AMR about a potential contract, said the ambulance company is “very interested in staying in the community long-term,” and is making efforts to provide service in other parts of the state.

Both the Charles City Council and the Floyd County Board of Supervisors have $75,000 set aside in their budgets for the new fiscal year for ambulance service, so that would cover the $150,000 in the first year of an AMR contract.

Roy Schwickerath, Floyd County supervisor chairman and member of the ambulance commission, said the proposed subsidy cost increases in the second and third years did not seem extreme, and the commission could also look for additional sources of financing to help pay that cost.

No members of the ambulance commission expressed objections to the direction the contract talks were going, so Keith Starr, a Charles City Council member and chairman of the ambulance commission, told Diers to ask AMR to come up with a formal contract proposal.

Both the city attorney and the county attorney would need to look over a proposed contract, Diers and Schwickerath said, and both the City Council and the Board of Supervisors would want to discuss the contract at a workshop meeting before taking formal action at a regular meeting, so time is getting short to have everything signed by the end of June.

Diers said he would work to have a contract proposal available for the ambulance commission to look at during a meeting Wednesday, May 20, so the commission could make a recommendation to the city and the county.

Ambulance service became a hot topic a year ago when AMR asked for a $128,000 annual subsidy, and ended up signing a one-year contract to provide service to Charles City and the St. Charles ambulance district (an area immediately around Charles City).

The contract, called a “stopgap” measure when it was signed last June, agreed to a $50,000 payment by the city to AMR and an agreement that the city would stop charging AMR rent to store its ambulances at the fire station, and would no longer charge AMR for firefighters who act as drivers on ambulance calls and for dispatching service. Stopping those fees saved AMR about $24,000 it would have paid the city.

The current one-year contract with the city calls for an advanced life support ambulance with a paramedic to always be available to Charles City. That means there are times when AMR has to respond with a basic life support ambulance with an emergency medical technician (EMT) to calls in the county, and there are times when AMR has been unavailable to transport patients from Floyd County Medical Center to other facilities.

Concerns about costs and availability of service prompted the Floyd County Ambulance Commission to become active again this past year, after being essentially dormant for years.

In early April the commission sent a letter to several area ambulance companies asking if they would be interested in providing service in Floyd County, to compare what they would charge to what AMR costs.

AMR responded that it would like to continue providing service here, and would be willing to negotiate a contract that would include the county as well as Charles City.

The only other service that expressed interest, Area Ambulance Service, which provides service in the Cedar Rapids area and to Buchanan County, said it was interested in further discussions, but could not be ready to provide service by the beginning of the new city and county fiscal year which begins July 1.

Diers said Tuesday that Area Ambulance said it would take up to 12 months to get a service started here.