Midway Fire not extinguishing ambulance hopes
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Midway Fire District still has no decision on what kind of proposal for ambulance service they are going to present to the Santa Rosa County Commission April 3. The Midway FD Board held a three-hour workshop on the ambulance issue Thursday, Feb. 22 - with the outcome being another workshop scheduled to finalize a decision.

An open-to-the-public workshop will be held Saturday, March 3 beginning at 9 a.m., where Fire Commissioners promised a final decision will be made about the direction they will take in acquiring their own ambulance services to serve the Midway area.

Fire Commissioners listened to three presentations at this first workshop. Donald Passaro of Advanced Data Processing, Inc. gave presentation to the Midway FD commissioners concerning what his company could offer in billing and collections if Midway formed its own ambulance service.

"We are the leading billing provider nationally, and in Florida. We bill in an 18-state area for over a million and a half transports a year, with more than $350 million in collections, Passaro said. "The closest community to Midway that we do billing and collections for is Okaloosa County. We want to help you be successful in your start-up venture. We have helped several start-ups in the past. "

Passaro said they could help Midway FD structure their fees to collect as much as possible, but still not be a burden on residents using the service. Setting fees correctly is one mistake many start-ups make. He said they acquired some data from the current ambulance service provider for this county.

"Even though we don't necessarily believe all the data we are getting from the current provider is complete, since it is sketchy at best, we still can see just from what we have gotten that if we had been billing for 2006 we would have collected a lot more revenue than they did. If we just use these figures, and had been doing billing, we would have for sure collected $300,000 more without even adjusting their coding or anything, " Passaro said.

He told fire commissioners that there is no start up cost to hiring the processing firm, either. And they will provide technology and training for the local staff to learn what the company needs to expedite the billing process. They provide small writing tablet sized laptops for paramedics to take to the scene.

Passaro said his company's fees are "someplace between six and seven percent", without the technology costs, which would add another point to that in fees. "Bottom line: why use us? Because we are your low risk choice and have a proven record of what we can do over many years."

LifeGuard Transportation, Inc., based in Pensacola, stepped up to the podium with a 40- minute presentation of what they could offer Midway FD in working together if LifeGuard wins the bid for the countywide ambulance service.

Chris Rucker, a Regional Director for LifeGuard, explained that owners John and Deborah Roche lived in Gulf Breeze, but their company covers six states. He said the company started in 1982 in Sarasota, Fla. and John Roche purchased it in 1990 bringing the headquarters to Pensacola. At that time the company was an air ambulance service, but since then has expanded to six states and offers six fixedwing aircraft to take patients anyplace they need to go nationally, as well as ground ambulances. They offer ambulance services to cities as large as Dallas, Tex. and Chattanooga, Tenn.

"We are the ambulance service for the Texas State Fair, a three week event where we handle half the volume of Santa Rosa County's yearly transports in just three weeks," Rucker said.

He stressed that in all those locations they have no problem coordinating with fire departments, big or small, and first responders, with no tension or stress at the scene or off.

"No matter who is awarded the countywide ambulance bid, Midway provides such an integral part of South Santa Rosa EMS that anyone who wins the bid will have to make Midway an integral part or it will never work, " John Roche said.

Debra Roche explained, "We understand where you want to be, and we are willing to work with you to help get you there. We are not offering a contractual partnership agreement, like some others, but we will certainly work in partnership with you if we win the countywide bid. We are committed to Midway. And we have been talking with other fire departments around the county, too, and other departments want to be where you are now, and can see what can be accomplished because of Midway's progress." She said there could be a partnership worked out where a couple ambulances could be stationed in Midway area, and for every transport Midway did they would receive monies, if LifeGuard is awarded the county contract.

Representatives from American Medical Response (AMR) were back to reaffirm to Midway FD that they are still interested in a contractual partnership with the district.

But Midway FD Commissioners were still not convinced.

Fire Commissioner Jacque Gorris made a motion to set a date for another workshop to make a final decision, and between then and now have a legal opinion on whether the district can even enter into a partnership with anyone, especially without advertising for bids. And Gorris wanted the Chief Stephen Demeter and staff to put a proposal together for Midway FD's own countywide bid on the ambulance service, and a bid proposal for them to handle just the Midway area.

"I am not saying we will submit these bids, but we should see what the numbers would look like to see if they are feasible, or if a partnership is a better way to go," said Gorris.

Chairman Buck Thackeray said, "My politics is whatever is best for this District. But I'm telling you all, with the county politics the way they are, if we submit a countywide bid to handle all the ambulance services in Santa Rosa, and someone like AMR submits a countywide bid also, we will not be successful bidding against people like this. They have more of everything than Midway does, especially experience in running an ambulance service. And I'm not sure we can really prove to the county commissioners that we can handle such a responsibility, even though we know we can."