Final Layoffs at Calif. Ambulance Billing Center Set for February

Jan. 05--In a notice to Stanislaus County's Board of Supervisors, a contractor for American Medical Response said it will lay off 47 remaining employees at a north Modesto billing center at the end of February.

AMR has gradually eliminated its billing and customer service workforce in Modesto since first announcing the cuts in October 2014.

The emergency services company turned over those functions to Florida-based Centrex Revenue Solutions, which moved most of the jobs to an overseas contractor in India and the Philippines. AMR said it was decentralizing its billing operations and also wanted to get away from high costs of doing business in California.

Closing the Modesto operation has eliminated more than 330 jobs.

Scores of former AMR employees have continued to work for Centrex in Modesto as the operations have been transitioned to the centers overseas.

The final layoffs will affect 13 billing and coding workers, eight quality assurance employees, a supervisor and 25 others who specialize in government and nongovernment billing, the notice said.

According to the Dec. 17 letter, Centrex expected to close the Modesto office as planned Dec. 31, but needs to retain the services of certain employees who work remotely from home. Those people will lose their jobs Feb. 29 or within a two-week period after that, the notice said.

The voicemail for Patrick McGuire, human resources director for Centrex, would not take messages Monday.

The Stoddard Road office once handled billing and customer service for AMR in California and other Western states. Many of the billing employees worked out of their homes as a way to reduce utility costs for the company.

American Medical Response has phased out the Modesto center and a similar one in Southern California.

The emergency services provider is owned by Envision Health, a publicly traded company that also owns EmCare Holdings Inc., which provides outsourced physicians services for hospitals. AMR has more than 19,000 paramedics and other staff providing service to 2,100 communities in the United States.

Ken Carlson: 209-578-2321

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