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M I N U T E S <br /> <br /> <br />Eugene City Council <br />Work Session <br />McNutt Room – City Hall <br />777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon <br /> <br /> February 13, 2008 <br /> Noon <br /> <br />COUNCILORS PRESENT: Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman, George Poling, Mike <br />Clark, Jennifer Solomon, Alan Zelenka. <br /> <br /> <br />Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. <br /> <br /> <br />A. WORK SESSION: Non-Emergency Stretcher Car Transports by Private Providers <br /> <br />City Manager Angel Jones introduced Fire Chief Randy Groves and Deputy Chief Denise Giard who would speak to <br />the subject of transport by private provider. <br /> <br />Chief Groves stated that the Fire Department was not opposed to subcontracting for non-emergency transports, but <br />asked the council to consider the entire transport system before making any policy decisions. He gave a PowerPoint <br />presentation highlighting the following policy questions: <br /> <br />? <br /> Is ambulance transport considered a core service? <br />? <br /> What level of pre-hospital care should be provided for the community? <br />? <br /> Who should provide ambulance transport services? <br />? <br /> How should ambulance transport services be funded? <br /> <br />Chief Groves stated that the fee-supported Ambulance Transport System (ATS) was no longer self-supporting and <br />the ambulance resource base was inadequate to meet current needs for a variety of reasons, including reduced <br />Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements, unfunded mandates, an increase in demand of the costs of providing service. He <br />provided an overview of the evolution of the ambulance transport system and how services were currently provided. <br />He noted that fees for service were designed to pay for patient transport, not the response by paramedics. He said <br />that County governments had the authority to establish ambulance service areas (ASA) and there were eight ASAs in <br />Lane County. He displayed a map of ASA #4 (Eugene) and the three zones within the ASA. <br /> <br />Deputy Chief Giard reviewed statistics related to calls for service and transport revenues and expenditures. She said <br />that a rate increase was necessary to avoid operating in a deficit. She said that Springfield had recently raised its rate <br />to $1,150 and that figure was used to illustrate the effect of an increase from the current rate of $900, which was <br />estimated at slightly over $500,000. <br /> <br />Chief Groves stated that trends towards increases in calls for services, rising costs, a growing senior population and <br />larger numbers of uninsured and under-insured patients meant the system was no longer sustainable relying strictly <br />on fees for service. He said potential short-term solutions included a rate increase, General Fund subsidy, imple- <br />menting a tiered transport fee system and continuing to lobby for federal funds. He said in addition to those options, <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 13, 2008 Page 1 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />