Business & economy, In the community

Ambulance service seeks funding help from Malheur County officials

ONTARIO – The primary ambulance provider for Malheur County is facing financial challenges and wants help from the Malheur County Court.

Treasure Valley Paramedic officials met with the court – Judge Dan Joyce and Commissioners Jim Mendiola and Ron Jacobs – Sept. 4 to ask for forgiveness on a $90,000 dispatch fee debt and a moratorium on paying the fees over the next three years. The agency has already paid the county $10,000 in dispatch fees for 2024.

The firm also asked for $100,000 from the county to hire, retrain and train more employees.

The county is required by state statute to create an ambulance service district and contract with local providers like Treasure Valley Paramedics.

The Malheur County Sheriff’s Office handles dispatch services for area emergency service providers. The dispatch center receives funds from the

State 911 tax and also collects fees from cities and emergency service providers within the county.

A private company, Treasure Valley Paramedics was founded in 1999.

Treasure Valley Paramedics needs the county help because of financial hits it suffered during the past few years.

Heather Land, vice president and chief financial officer for the ambulance service, said her company confronts staffing and equipment challenges, a decrease in calls, a rise in local dispatch feesand a new state tax that all erode the agency’s finances.

She also said a data breach in February at the nation’s largest clearing house for billing hurt the ambulance service. That meant, she said, “nothing was coming in or going out,” in terms of Medicare and Medicaid payments.

The agency also faces a projected boost in the state tax levied on private ambulance services to cover the gap between the costs of furnishing emergency medical care and what Medicaid will pay.

Eventually, she said, the ambulance service will receive reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid to cover the fee hike but, in the interim, the ambulance service will have to pay out $100,000 in extra costs.

Personnel shortages are also a problem, said Land. Land said her agency needs another eight to 10 trained emergency medical technicians.

A shortage of trained people means those who are available often work longer hours and the agency’s overtime budget is strained, said Land.

Some older equipment also needs to be replaced, said Land.

For example, Lund said, the company needs load systems that automatically move patients into an ambulance.

“So, we can save employee’s backs. We need to get those but they are $25,000 apiece,” said Land.

Land said the firm also needs new patient monitors and a ventilator.

“Those are big costs,” she said.

A decrease in calls for ambulance service so far in 2024 hurt the agency’s budget as did the boost in local dispatch fees. The company handled about 4,000 calls in 2023, said Land.

The agency paid $36,000 in dispatch fees in 2018. In 2022, the ambulance service paid $109,000 in fees.

Land declined to discuss how much money the company has lost during the past few years.

Mendiola said he was puzzled by Treasure Valley Paramedic’s proposal.

“I don’t know what to tell you. We will probably end up giving it to them but I’m not really happy about it,” he said.

Mendiola said the county “doesn’t have a whole lot of options.” The county can either agree to the company’s request or deny it. A denial would mean the ambulance firm must find extra money somewhere else.

“There is just some stuff we just don’t have any control over and we do need the service,” he said.

Land said if the county does not agree to the request of help, the ambulance service will look at other funding options.

One way to raise more money, said Land, would be to increase the monthly fee homeowners in the county pay for the ambulance service district. Now, each home is charged a $16 fee, a cost instituted in 1999.

“That (increasing the fee) would be a great start. We’d have to put it out to the public but that would be a huge relief,” said Land.

Malheur County Sheriff Travis Johnson said the request by the company to  skip paying dispatch fees for a short period was “a hard one to digest.”

“I see the importance of what TVP (Treasure Valley Paramedics) does for us. We need them in a community like this,” he said.

Johnson said, however, that “it is hard to run a 911 center without funds.”

“I don’t know what the best avenue is yet to fix it. That money to pay for them has to come from somewhere,” he said.

Jacobs said the court still needs to discuss the issue.

“I’d like to help them in some way. We are responsible to have that service available to the community,” he said.

News tip? Contact reporter Pat Caldwell at [email protected]

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