Three Mississippi companies are competing to provide ambulance service to Newton County in the coming year after the Board of Supervisors opted to advertise for bids last month.
Vying for Newton County’s contract are PatientCare, formerly known as LifeCare, which is the county’s current ambulance service provider, CareMed, an Oxford-based ambulance service provider, and ASAP Ambulance, which is headquartered in Laurel.
Each of the ambulance providers stated three ambulances would be assigned to Newton County, and agreements with providers in neighboring counties would be actively sought to ensure additional ambulances were readily available should need arise.
Additionally, all three companies pledged to have an ambulance available for home football games and other special events in case of incident.
The highest bid came from PatientCare, which asked for a $50,000 subsidy to provide the three ambulances. In the bid documents, the company noted shifts in the payer mix, coupled with upgrades to the ambulance service, have increased costs for the company, which it must pass on to counties.
“Like other segments of rural healthcare, the economics or rural EMS are changing. The payer mix has shifted in the past few years, reducing revenue,” the bid documents read. “The result is our cost per unit hour is growing more quickly than revenue generated per unit hour.”
CareMed also pledged three ambulances for a subsidy of $25,000 per year, with a 3 percent subsidy increase per year. The company stated it would implement an ambulance replacement schedule, swapping out old ambulances with newer models at or before 200,000 miles.
Under CareMed, the county would handle dispatching for the ambulances, allowing local dispatch to know their locations at all times. Additionally, CareMed said on duty first responders needing to be transported to the hospital would be taken at no charge.
The third bid, from ASAP Ambulance, asked for a $30,000 subsidy, which would be split into 12 monthly payments. ASAP stated it would have three ambulances assigned to Newton County, with at least one staying in the county lines at all times. Additionally, all ASAP ambulances would be available for Newton County should the need arise.
The Board of Supervisors took the three ambulance service bids under advisement to allow County Attorney Jason Mangum to review each document in depth.
The county’s current contract with PatientCare is set to expire Jan. 1, 2020.
