Brown County Commissioners took the first step in securing a new ambulance service in Brown County Monday morning. Commissioners voted unanimously to accept the recommendation of the Brown County Ambulance Selection Committee to begin negotiations with LifeGuard Ambulance Services for the county’s EMS and ambulance services.
The committee began the selection process by requesting proposals on July 15, 2015 for emergency ambulance and EMS service which will begin on January 1, 2016. This date is when the county’s contract with the current service provider, Allegiance Ambulance Service, ends.
According to Commissioner Joel Kelton of Precinct 2, a selection committee comprised of representatives from the cities of Brownwood, Early and Bangs, Brown County and a member of the medical community along with an outside emergency medical service associate were asked to review and score the proposals independently.
“This selection committee met on September 15, each ambulance service was given the opportunity to present their proposals,” explained Kelton. “The committee unanimously selected LifeGuard Ambulance Services as the highest scoring bidder. The scores were verified by our county auditor.”This agreement was brought to the commissioner’s court for final approval on Monday.
Steve Athey, the county’s EMS consultant, addressed the court before the vote.
“It was decided by the ambulance committee that the best way to move forward with looking at a provider and a new contract for January 1, was to put it out for bids. That committee helped me develop a request for proposals. That request for proposals laid out what the cities, Brownwood, Bangs and Early, Brown County and the medical community wanted to see in an ambulance provider,” Athey explained.
A preproposal meeting was at the end of July in the Commissioners’ Courtroom for anyone who was interested in submitting a proposal. During this initial meeting in July where the ambulance committee met with companies interested in giving proposals, seven companies showed up and were able to ask questions. They also heard an overview of the process from the consultant, fire chief and commissioner Kelton. The companies were given approximately 45 days to complete their proposals; however, only five were submitted on September 8th, 2015, which was the deadline.
The committee members were able to ask questions of the representatives of the companies who made proposals, then at the end unanimously voted to take their recommendation to the County.
Athey stated that the committee scored each proposal on what they would charge the county’s citizens along with the amount of their subsidy. There were two companies with a $0 subsidy, one of which was Allegiance Ambulance Service. LifeGuard scored the lowest in this price category, according to Athey.
“Scoring was pretty pervasive,” said Kelton. “LifeGuard scored the highest of all providers regarding quality (of service) and price points from all providers.”
Details of each bid were not released Monday due to the negotiations with LifeGuard not being completed.
Aaron Reese, Chief Operations Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Allegiance Ambulance spoke to the court before the vote and explained that his company had served Brown County for nearly 12 years, including the years with Guardian EMS which was purchased by Allegiance in 2013. All of Allegiance’s employees, according to Reese, are local and very familiar with the county. The current contract with Allegiance has a $119,000 subsidy; however, their new proposal offered a $0 subsidy to the county in order to be competitive. He also stated that Allegiance is a Texas based ambulance service and has provided new ambulances and equipment to provide better service to the county.
“I respectfully ask you guys to reconsider the selection committee’s recommendation and maybe dial into the parameter of the scoring. This is Texas and we try to keep our taxes down. I ask you to reconsider and don’t go back to your constituents and say that ‘we wanted a different provider that is out of state, that we don’t know, that is going to cost you more money,’” said Reese. “Please reconsider our more than ten year relationship, our price and our service and the thousands of hot dogs, hamburgers and candy taken to the doctors, nurses and the patients of this county.”
LifeGuard Ambulance Chief of Operations Joshua Spencer stated that his company is the leader in EMS services for rural counties and that the staff is CASS accredited. He also stated that the company plans to have more ambulances available throughout Brown County and that LifeGuard is committed to clinical quality and will work to hire the local workforce.
Air Evac 52 Program Director Bobby Brinson confirmed that LifeGuard Ambulance is owned by the same parent company (Air Medical Group Holdings) as Air Evac. Brinson stated that he has followed the selection process because his company has a vested interest due to working closely with whichever ambulance service provider Brown County hires.
“The county and cities involved have done a good job in making this decision, based on the information provided, and have given it a lot of time and effort,” said Brinson.
