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B. AMBLANCE TRANSPORT SYSTEM <br />Mr. Bozievich noted the members of the intergovernmental Ambulance Transport Task Force, which <br />included himself, Ms. Ortiz, Mr. Clark, Mr. Van Gordon, Ms. Woodrow, Mr. Holmes, and Mr. Drew. He <br />said the elected officials were supported by the staff of the Eugene - Springfield Fire Department and Lane <br />Rural/Fire Rescue. Mr. Bozievich reported that task force members unanimously agreed that ambulance <br />transport was a core service that must be accessible by residents and visitors in central Lane County <br />regardless of ability to pay. <br />Mr. Bozievich reviewed the agenda for the presentation. <br />Fire Chief Randy Groves led the elected officials through a PowerPoint presentation that provided <br />information on existing ambulance service areas, a history of local ambulance service delivery since <br />1981, an overview of service funding and the funding challenges created by capitated Medicare/Medicaid <br />reimbursements, demographic trend lines for population and age, a breakdown of gross charges, <br />combined medical unit responses broken down by ambulance service areas, call volume broken down by <br />responding agency, and a review of the department's progress on the recommendations made by the last <br />intergovernmental ambulance task force in 2009 as well as on measures initiated by staff. The elected <br />officials asked questions clarifying the details of the presentation. <br />Mr. Drew reviewed the task force's Option 1, "Do nothing." <br />Mr. VanGordon reviewed Option 2, "Privatize." <br />Ms. Ortiz reviewed Option 3, "Form Ambulance Transport District." <br />Ms. Woodrow reviewed a matrix comparing all three options. <br />Ms. Ortiz expressed concern that the existing workload was taxing staff, which was spread too thin. She <br />recommended the elected officials consider what they could do in the long -term to alleviate that problem. <br />Mr. Bozievich concurred. He said the system was on the edge in terms of capacity and there were times <br />during the day when units were temporarily not available. That was leading to burnout among the <br />paramedics, who never had an opportunity to return to the station during the day because of the service <br />demand. He did not believe the option of doing nothing was realistic. <br />Mr. Van Gordon left the meeting. <br />Responding to a question from Mr. Stewart, Chief Groves anticipated that a district, if formed, would <br />likely charge a fee of some size to prevent overutilization. Mr. Stewart questioned whether that provided <br />an adequate disincentive, particularly for those with insurance. He asked if Oakridge or South Lane had <br />been contacted about the potential of joining together to form a larger Lane County district. Chief Groves <br />said it was difficult to get all the necessary people in one place at one time but he saw no obstacle to a <br />larger district. <br />Responding to a question from Ms. Moore, Chief Groves confirmed the task force had discussed <br />combining ambulance and fire services in a single district. Mr. Bozievich observed there were 12 fire <br />districts inside the three ambulance service areas examined by the task force, which added to the <br />complexity of such an approach. <br />MINUTES —Joint Elected Officials May 24, 2012 Page 2 <br />Lane County, City of Eugene, City of Springfield, Lane Rural Fire/Rescue <br />