PANAMA CITY — Bay County’s ambulance service is falling nearly $2 million short of covering its operating costs in its first full fiscal year of operation, but officials are hopeful they will be able to close the gap by collecting millions in unpaid bills.
Total expenditures for the ambulance service for fiscal year 2014, which ended Sept. 30, were $6.96 million, which is $1.81 million away from breaking even. But there is $7.5 million in outstanding debts the county is trying to collect in net accounts receivable.
Mark Bowen, chief of emergency services, said considerably more time is needed to collect unpaid debt to see whether the several million-dollar shortfall to cover the ambulance services expenses is a reality. The commission wants 18 months from the time the service started to analyze the numbers so the collection effort could be evaluated.
Bowen, who met individually with commissioners Wednesday to give them the latest numbers, said the subject may be discussed publicly by the commission at a meeting in April.
“Honestly, I wish (the numbers) were better,” Bowen said. “But I also honestly feel like they haven’t been (in place) long enough to know. I wish they were better the first month we were in business, but it would have been completely unrealistic to think there would have been money coming in. It just hasn’t been long enough. We have to wait until we have a reasonable window to do a break-even analysis.”
He said cuts to the service aren’t realistic, as there is generally a shortage of paramedics. The county could subsidize the service like many other counties or try to convince a private firm to take it over, he said.
Just after midnight Oct. 1, 2013, the county took over operation of Bay County’s ambulance service.
“Anytime you take on an undertaking of that magnitude, there’s a certain amount of risk,” County Commissioner Guy Tunnell said at the time. “We feel confident that our 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 at the time, 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 was intended that the service would eventually pay for itself.
Of that line of credit, $2.5 million has been spent to buy new trucks and equipment and covering the first few months of operation of the service.
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.
By the numbers
Ambulance service in fiscal year 2013-14:
- Collected: $5.15 million
- Sent to collection agency: $.93 million
- Net account receivable: $7.51 million
Source: Bay County