Don’t scrap ambulance partnership

Star News

Editorials

Taylor County has neither the financial resources nor in-house expertise to run an ambulance service on its own. Rather than pursuing such a course, the county should continue to work with Aspirus to improve the coverage and level of care in local communities.

A handful of Taylor County board members, fueled, in part, by disgruntled former Aspirus ambulance employees, have suggested the county should go on its own and entirely run the ambulance service. Doing so, they believe, will give a better accounting of the costs as well as address lingering staffing issues by making it more welcoming for the paid-on-call volunteers to once again be active, particularly in the Gilman and Rib Lake service areas.

For decades, Taylor County has partnered with the local hospital to provide the ambulance service. This relationship has continued through Aspirus taking over complete ownership of the hospital last year. The county owns the ambulances and contracts with Aspirus to handle staffing, supply costs, and billing to patients and insurance companies. Under its current contract, the county pays 45% of the operating costs in the form of an annual subsidy.

National averages put the annual cost of running an ambulance service at about $500,000 per ambulance. Taylor County operates four ambulances with one each stationed in Gilman and Rib Lake and two in Medford. The existing partnership allows the service to be provided at below the national average cost.

The county’s annual cost took a huge jump last year due, in large part, to a transition away from paid-on-call volunteers to more full-time staff. This shift is part of a nationwide trend, seen particularly in rural areas, where the previous volunteers are aging out and there are not people available to replace them.

Further aggravating this worker shortage is a mandate for Aspirus employees to either be vaccinated for COVID-19 or have an approved waiver. With waivers about as easy to get as Tootsie Rolls at a parade, it is disingenuous to hold this up as a realistic barrier. Likewise, it is also inaccurate to place the blame on Aspirus for this mandate since it is a federal requirement for agencies receiving Medicare and Medicaid funds.

Simply put, without Medicare and Medicaid funds there would be no hospital in Medford or any other rural community in the state. As with anything else, those paying the piper get to pick the music.

Another challenge has been the increasing regionalization of Aspirus and its move to create more uniform operations across its growing service area in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. Change is always hard and Aspirus faces the same challenges of other large employers with multiple locations in communicating the reasons for changes with their staff members. However, current leadership appears to be working to address existing issues. As with all things, this takes time and will not happen overnight.

If Taylor County were to take over running the ambulance service, it would result in an immediate $2 million increase to the county budget for basic operating costs, as well as greatly increasing payroll, state retirement and health insurance expense as ambulance crews would become county employees. Beyond actual care providers, the county would also have to create an entirely new billing and collections department and have staff devoted to working with insurance providers and Medicare and Medicaid.

Rather than needlessly burdening county taxpayers with these costs, county leaders must work with Aspirus to address concerns and ensure adequate coverage for the entire county.