Missouri Community to Form Ambulance District

April 24--The community has 14 months to come up with a plan to ensure its emergency patients are taken to the hospital.

Heartland Health announced last week it will no longer provide ambulance service beginning July 1, 2014. Officials cited struggles with a $1.7 million operating deficit for the service, on top of nearly $20 million in cuts due to the Affordable Care Act.

On Wednesday, officials with St. Joseph and Buchanan County met in a joint work session to be briefed on their role in providing this service, which will include forming an ambulance district in the community.

R.T. Turner, presiding commissioner, asked city officials for names of 12 to 20 community members who could work together as a facilitating team over the next year. Its members would look at every option that goes into forming an ambulance district, including who would pay for and provide the service -- whether it's the city, county or a private company.

"I don't see where we have any other choice," Mr. Turner said about forming a district. "It's a service we need to provide for our community. We've become accustomed to good service and we need to come up with a plan that's equal to what we have now."

The ambulance district would provide emergency services for two-thirds of Buchanan County (the rest is already serviced by the Tri-County Ambulance District out of Plattsburg, Mo.) and will take control of all aspects of an ambulance service, including dispatch, billing and laundry.

It costs Heartland about $6 million a year to operate the service.

Officials hope the issue will appear on next April's ballot, along with a 10-cent property tax levy. A six-member board of directors will be voted on at that time.

Mr. Turner stressed that while a Heartland-provided consultant will work with the facilitating team, the company will not have a say as to how the district will be operated; neither will the city nor the county.

"It's going to belong to the community," he said, adding that the issue would not appear on the ballot without an "aggressive" public information campaign or without significant input from the public.

Bruce Woody, city manager, added that the issue is still in the early stages, so any decision on how the ambulance district would be operated is premature.

"We need to identify all costs and expenses and how they would exist outside of Heartland," he said.

He added that the issue would not interfere with a proposed half-cent sales tax, which would pay for increased salaries at the police, fire and health departments, hire 22 additional officers, and provide extra capital for police and fire equipment.

"This is distinctly different from and not related to the public safety tax," Mr. Woody said.

That tax will likely appear on the August ballot.

Kim Norvell can be reached at kim.norvell@newspressnow.com. Follow her on Twitter: @SJNPNorvell.

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