The News Herald is publishing its annual countdown of the top 10 stories of the year.
These were the stories reporters and editors felt were the most important in Bay County in 2013. The series will end on New Year’s Eve, with the top story of the year. Also on that day, The News Herald will list the top 10 stories as ranked by readers in an online poll.
NEWS HERALD TOP 10 STORIES COUNTDOWN
10. Sunday: Florida State University Panama City opens to freshmen, sophomores
9. Monday: Arrival of F-22s, Air Force personnel delayed for a year
8. Tuesday: Big Changes at The Rescue Mission
7. Wednesday: Development boom at Pier Park
6. Thursday: Region Raked in BP Money
5. Today: Changes at Bay Med, EMS
PANAMA CITY — Just after midnight Oct. 1, the county took over operation of Bay County’s only ambulance service.
“Anytime you take on an undertaking of that magnitude, there’s a certain amount of risk,” said County Commissioner Guy Tunnell. “We feel confident that out staff have thoroughly researched this issue.”
In discussing whether the county should take over the service, commissioners wondered whether it would pay its own way.
“Officially … the jury is still out on that,” Tunnell, said, noting “as long as we can break even … that’s the important thing.”
Concerns about the recently turned for-profit Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart Health System running the county’s only ambulance service led the commission to consider absorbing the service. The commission approved a $3 million line of credit to cover initial purchases and costs in the beginning months of its service. It’s intended that the service would eventually pay for itself.
As EMS operator, the county acquired 88 staff members and 14 ambulances from the previous owners. More ambulances will be purchase to be added to the fleet and rotate out older ones, county officials said.
In addition to the Bay Med facility, the county is leasing substations at Callaway and the beach.
“We didn’t lose anyone as a result of the transition,” said Mark Bowen, chief of emergency services. “It’s definitely running smoothly.”
The service operates on an annual budget of about $7.5 million and grosses above $20 million annually, according to county officials. EMS rates have remained the same as they were prior to county takeover.
Medicare insurance payouts are retroactive but eventually will be paid to the county, Bowen said, and payments have started to roll in.
However, without having proper licensure to operate as a Medicaid service provider, money is being thrown out of the window, according to Bowen. The service is being used, but there isn’t reimbursement.
“That’s just money lost,” he said. “It’s not an enormous amount of money in the larger scheme of things, but it’s something we’re definitely working on.”
He said the lack of a Medicaid provider license was the only “loose end” in the EMS transition. Other than that, “We were able to transition it without any impact to service,” he said.
The county expects to have the Medicaid license in place by the end of January, although it could come as soon as the next week.
Bay Med CEO Barry Keel said that, despite losing a revenue stream, statistics show “we are the preferred facility of choice when the transportees are asked where do they want to go.”
“The revenue itself was a nominal amount,” Keel said. “It’s been a very collaborative environment with the county, Bay Med and (Gulf Coast Medical Center) … and coming to agreement on how exactly the transition as smooth as possible could happen and I think we effectively have done that.”
Other changes
The county takeover of the EMS service wasn’t the only Bay Med-related news in 2013. Keel, who became CEO in May, was faced with authorizing laying off 58 full-time employees in November.
“We needed to rebase some of our existing cost structure and reduce the cost to deliver care,” Keel said. “Expenses associated with some of the personnel was the way in which we reduced some of those costs.”
The hospital lost about $4 million due to several factors, including federal “sequestration” budget cuts, health care reform, and a rise in the number of patients unable to pay for services.
“The payments that we are receiving from Medicare are reduced,” Keel said. “That’s not just Bay Med; that’s a variety of hospitals.”
Even though the new health law requires all citizens to have health insurance and provides subsidies for those who need it, reimbursements have not come in.
“We have experienced the impact of those reduced payments; we have not yet seen or experienced the increase,” he said.
Separately, the county struggled to get a voice on the Bay Health Foundation board, formerly the Bay Medical Center Board of Trustees, which oversees Bay Med’s employee pension fund, the hospital lease agreement and the disbursement of proceeds from the lease.
“We needed some assurance as far as the appointment process,” Tunnell said. “It would have been a mute point if they would have agreed to appoint one of us a year ago.”
He said the commission feels more secure with the appointment of Commissioner George Gainer to the foundation, especially in regards to employee pension oversight.
“I think it we had a difference of philosophy, it’s unfortunate that it got to the point it did,” Tunnell said. “The bottom line is the county commission and county taxpayers are responsible for that retirement fund be fiscally sound.”
He said that to make it an irrevocable trust means “it’s put away and can’t be touched.”