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Ambulance firm blasts Steubenville city leaders

STEUBENVILLE — Ambulance Service Inc. ended its seven-month silence Friday, releasing a multi-page statement blasting City Council’s decision to start its own fire department-based ambulance service.

ASI also took aim at what it called “factually incorrect information” released during council’s Tuesday meeting concerning the company’s availability to provide emergency and non-emergency services in the city, though it’s unclear exactly what that information was.

At that meeting, council had agreed in the short-term to contract with Wintersville Fire Department to provide ambulance services from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. daily during a six-day stretch ending Monday, at a cost of $850 per 12-hour shift. At the time, city officials said the private carrier had temporary staffing issues.

ASI called that decision “another step toward a calculated and concerted effort to eliminate private EMS services in the county for the benefit of public services, in order to justify the increased use of levies to benefit the chosen few at the expense of many local taxpayers.”

The company also suggests that, during the past five months, “the actions of the city administration, its council, and public EMS leadership in the county only support our opinion that this was a calculated and concerted effort to enrich the few at the expense of the many.”

City Manager Jim Mavromatis declined comment, saying he hadn’t had a chance to read the release. Likewise, several council members said they could not comment, though one did point out City Council is “doing the best we can to provide the most possible care to our citizens.”

ASI, a D’Anniballe family enterprise, has been operating in Steubenville for 56 years. Attorney Rob D’Anniballe could not be reached for comment.

In January, however, D’Anniballe had reminded council ASI doesn’t get any funding from the city but instead relies on reimbursements from Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance. He’d said in a city like Steubenville, where a large percentage of the population is either Medicaid or no pay at all, his family is spending far more to provide emergency services than they are capturing in reimbursements and said that’s a situation that couldn’t continue indefinitely.

“… the model we’re operating under, we can’t continue to (maintain),” D’Anniballe said in January. “We’d like to initiate a discussion with the city, start looking at a long-term solution. It’s not something you can snap your fingers and do today. But the model we’re operating under can’t continue to exist for us to continue, the model you’re operating under is not going to continue to work for you. We have to get out ahead of this.”

In Friday’s news release, ASI alleged those meetings never happened, suggesting city officials had withheld pertinent information, including that the company refused to share usage statistics — the number of Medicare, Medicaid and non-pay and mutual aid transports — because they consider that information to be proprietary, and, “if released, would place ASI at a competitive disadvantage in a future competitive bid process.”

“… Requesting the total number of transports and payer mix provides revenue, which is a component of the financials,” ASI stated. “More importantly, the data is not recorded historically but instead, reviewed in real time and is not available for production.”

ASI contends city officials portrayed the company as “obstinate and non-cooperative,” adding that they’re amazed with “continued reports that non-emergency transports are more profitable than emergency transports.”

“Obviously, the pool of non-emergency transports is from the same demographic mix that comprises our community,” the release stated. “Therefore, (that statement) cannot be farther from the truth.”

“The only numbers that ASI is able to share are as follows,” ASI’s release continued. “The city will, at least, spend $100,000 to $150,000 in upfront costs for each vehicle it acquires, equips and places in service. The range will vary based on the condition of the vehicle and the type of equipment purchased. The city will lose over $100,000 per vehicle per year every year. The actual number will depend on the city’s ability to manage the service as well as ASI has with 56 years of experience. Even with two vehicles, this will not eliminate mutual aid nor the staffing shortage.”

ASI said it asked the city in March to consider a public-private partnership between them and the fire department, saying they floated the idea as a vehicle to “address staffing shortages faced by both of our departments and to leverage resources in efforts not to burden the community with an additional levy.”

“Initially, we recommended shared labor between the Steubenville Fire Department and ASI,” the company noted. “ASI agreed to assume the operating cost of the vehicles, insurance, licensing, dispatch, billing, etc. This solution would reduce but not eliminate the use of mutual aid as it is a common practice used by law enforcement, fire and EMS.”

Instead, council recently agreed to spend up to $343,519 in CARES Act funds to buy two 2021 Frontline ambulances on a Ford E350 chassis, plus equipment, and is seeking firefighters with paramedic training to staff the ambulances and provide backup. The city expects to launch the service within the month.

That decision apparently rankled ASI, which pointed out that, “For any partnership to be successful it takes trust, commitment, mutual respect and the desire to succeed from all parties.”

“ASI has proactively engaged the city for a year to address this critical issue,” the company said in its release. “Instead of meeting with ASI as promised during the Jan. 21 meeting, members of City Council actively (talked to other agencies) to explore possible solutions. Since January … this has occurred without any subsequent discussion with ASI.”

“Whatever decision is made by (council), we wish the city success in addressing the critical issues we have outlined,” ASI’s release Friday concluded. “It is our hope that the already heavily-levied taxpayers assume no further burden and the community continues to receive the emergency services we have been lobbying for during the past year.”

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