Jeff Bergosh Blog: A Brief Back and Forth between ECEMS and Lifeguard gets Quashed Fast....

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Sunday, January 30, 2022

A Brief Back and Forth between ECEMS and Lifeguard gets Quashed Fast....

There were some rumblings back and forth between Lifeguard Ambulance Services of Santa Rosa County and Escambia County EMS over the last several weeks.

This comes on the heels of some reported attempts by Lifeguard to poach some paramedics away from Escambia County with the promise of higher pay--even after Escambia County fronted the money for these particular paramedics to further their professional education.

So this recent dust-up started after an email was sent to Escambia County earlier this month by an attorney represening Lifeguard. The email expressed concern about Lifeguard's continuing ability to provide for patient transfers in Escambia County. I'm told this patient transfer work is a very lucrative aspect of their (Lifeguard's) business model, apparently, and Escambia EMS is taking on a greater and greater proportion of such transfers within the county in order to generate the revenue necessary for Escambia EMS to continue to honor our higher wages and recruitment bonuses. The additional revenue is also being used by ECEMS for the purchase of new equipment and for some future growth.

But our revenue generation has apparently hit Lifeguard in the pocket book.

I've even recently heard a rumor that this revenue hit is being described to some Lifeguard employess by management at Lifeguard as "potentially compromising their ability to continue to meet payroll for new hires." That is something I have heard, secondhand, so it is just hearsay.

Meanwhile, what is known for certain and what is NOT hearsay is that Lifeguard's operations in Escambia County are controlled by Escambia County. (i.e. they work under a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (COPCN) that is issued by Escambia County and which stipulates what activities, within Escambia County, Lifeguard can engage in--including patient transfers, regardless of any contractual arrangements Lifeguard may have currently with facilities based in Escambia County)

So we will see what happens next, but as Escambia EMS takes on more and more patient transfers within the county this will generate more revenue for Escambia public safety programs going forward (more staff, better pay, and better equipment)--and this is a good thing!