County Council approves $197,000 in Operation Life funding

Thursday, June 22, 2017

More than a year after the accident that took it out of commission, a Putnam County Operation Life Ambulance will finally be back in service in December or January.

Additionally, the Greencastle-based non-profit ambulance service will also get the money needed to fund a third crew through the end of the year.

The Putnam County Council made final approval of the two expenditures, which total $197,000, during its regular June meeting on Tuesday. Both will be appropriated from the Hazardous Waste Fund.

The $60,000 to fix the ambulance, which was also approved by the Putnam County Commissioners on Monday, is in addition to $83,000 of insurance money Operation Life collected after a November 2016 crash in which an OL ambulance T-boned a Putnam County Sheriff’s Department SUV at U.S. 231 and Veterans Highway on Greencastle’s South End.

The chassis of the vehicle was totaled in that wreck, but the box was salvaged. The $143,000 will go to a new chassis and mounting the box on the new truck. For now, the box is sitting in an Indianapolis shop, awaiting funding.

“We have a wrecked ambulance sitting there that, theoretically, the county owns,” Commissioner Rick Woodall said. “And that would give us three ambulances.”

The ambulance service actually currently has four ambulances, however, two of them are high-mileage and ideally used only as back-up.

Operation Life Executive Director E.J. Claflin told the commissioners with an order placed now, the ambulance will still not be in commission until December or January.

It does, however, give OL hope on the horizon of actually having “a viable, remounted ambulance,” that, in Claflin’s words, “gives us three top-line ambulances.”

In making the motion for passage, Commissioner David Berry also expressed his desire to get a piece of county property back on the road.

“I want to to put it in service. We own the ambulance,” Berry said. “I want it back on the road.”

Woodall seconded the motion, making it a 2-0 vote. Commissioner Don Walton was absent on Monday.

The commissioners already approved the $137,000 for staffing last month, but both questions were before the council.

The vehicle issue passed the council without opposition and with limited discussion.

The council had much more to say about the staffing issue, as it underscores questions about the longterm financial viability of Operation Life.

While the money will give the service the ability to fund a third full-time crew through the end of the year, what happens after Jan. 1?

“It’s probably time to fund EMS on a regular basis,” Claflin told the council, “rather than showing up time after time after time to say, ‘I need this.’”

Currently the county gives Operation Life $80,000 annually from Hazardous Waste, besides other expenditures that may arise.

Claflin explained that a relatively small contribution from the county worked at one time but inflation and, more importantly, reduced compensation on runs have made it difficult, if not impossible, to break even.

“The amount of reimbursement for ambulance service is less than it costs to run calls,” Claflin said.

He explained that the biggest funding source for EMS has traditionally been the federal government, through Medicare and Medicaid.

When the government reduced compensation to medical providers from Medicare and Medicaid, it greatly changed the model. Operation Life last broke even in 2010.

“We’ve run through all our resources and that’s how we’ve gotten to where we are today,” Claflin said.

Council attorney Trudy Selvia explained that the problem is not unique to EMS services.

“We used to have a small drugstore here on the square,” Selvia said, “and about the time we sold is the time (Operation Life) started losing money.”

Having examined several years of financial information on OL, Councilman Dave Fuhrman questioned why the service has even lasted as long as it has with the money that has been lost.

“You can throw money at a bad business, but after 2013 (Operation Life) should have gone away,” Fuhrman said.

Shortly before passage, Councilman Keith Berry asked Claflin the question that goes well beyond the $137,000 band-aid.

“Long term, what do you think the answer is?” Berry asked.

“A funding source that isn’t the landfill,” Claflin said.

“It’s going to take more than $80,000 to support an ambulance service,” Commissioner Rick Woodall added. Woodall is also the Commissioners’ member of the OL Board.

Auditor Laurie Hallett added that she has talked to other auditors around the state, and even with approving nearly $200,000 in additional funds on Tuesday, Putnam County is getting off relatively easy compared to other counties.

With Phil Gick making the motion, the $137,000 expenditure passed by a 5-1 vote, with Gick, Berry, Larry Parker, Jill Bridgewater and Gene Beck voting affirmatively. Fuhrman cast the lone dissenting vote, while Darrel Thomas did not vote, as is commonly his practice as Council president.

The ongoing funding issue will be back before both the council and commissioners before year’s end. The council will have to deal with it during budget hearings in September, while the commissioners will have to consider bids for EMS bids before January.

In addition to Operation Life, STAR Ambulance may also bid on providing emergency 911 service to the county.

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  • Competition is a good thing.

    -- Posted by localman on Thu, Jun 22, 2017, at 7:04 PM
  • Unbelievable. More and more obvious how crooked Putnam County elected officials and the administration of Putnam County Operation Life is.

    Hey. Why don't you make it a "Government Institution" (as it was decided it was by one of our judges in a court ruling). That way, they can STOP calling themselves "PRIVATE". The employees can go on the COUNTY PAYROLL, get County benefits and suck the tax payers even more dry.

    While PCOL and our County Officials are draining the County funds (our taxes). STAR Ambulance quietly sits back and does the work PCOL refuses to do. Pathetic. Wake up County residents, this is only ONE way your elected officials are misappropriating funds. Time to clean house. First money pit to go, Putnam County Operation Life. The article stated PCOL CANNOT survive, even restated by the director himself. Why do we keep throwing money at it? STAR can and is "surviving" asking for ZERO. Seems like a no brainer to me.

    Somebody is lying to us, pick one. This is crooked, thieving Politics at its worst and no one seems to care.

    -- Posted by Everyone has a story on Fri, Jun 23, 2017, at 6:22 AM
  • And we keep feeding a dying organization! I can not believe that the county thinks that an ambulance owned by a PRIVATE NOT FOR PROFIT entity is theirs to fund? It does not belong to the county and the county will see no money from the sale of it when PCOL goes under. There is no solution for next year or even years after that to fund a proper EMS service for the residents of the county.

    Now lets talk about the Hazmat fund, a fund that county fire departments have been denied funds from, the same county fire departments that will be the ones responsible for actually dealing with a hazmat response, not an ambulance service. Also is there not a stipulation that in order to draw funds from the hazmat fund that all responding members of your organization must be certified to the level of hazmat operations? Someone should check all of PCOL staff's certification folders.

    To the county council and commissioners, SHAME ON YOU! Shame on you for continuing to fund an ems service that refuses to hire county residents, that provides sub par medical treatment after PCOL gets lost on a regular basis. Shame on you for wasting the hazmat fund on a service who's director has told you that PCOL will not be able to survive next year without more funding that the county does not have and is not prepared to spend. It would be one thing if a plan was in motion for next year to fund PCOL, however it is not. Shame on you for funding a service that refuses to service our local residents who are at our local nursing homes and hospital.

    SHAME ON YOU!

    -- Posted by putnamcountyperson on Fri, Jun 23, 2017, at 9:14 AM
  • It is now time to show how crooked all of these "politicians" are. Woodall sits on the o.l. board. Do any of you not see a problem with this? It is now time to put them in their place. Thwy work for the taxpayers not themselves. Maybe the greencastle league of women voters should be outraged at the misuse of taxpayers dollars. Better yet....money is sitting in this county that could benefit economic development...not being used...its just people dont know about it.

    -- Posted by canttakeitanymore on Sat, Jun 24, 2017, at 8:46 AM
  • I still can't find anything that says medicare or medicaid rates paid to EMS have ever been cut. They probably haven't increased like they should to keep up with healthcare costs, but I don't think that's the same as saying they've decreased. Looks like there was a big federal medicare program cut in 2010, but I don't see anything online that says it resulted it EMS payment cuts.

    I also saw that in the 2022 legislative session, Indiana passed HB 1112 that raised medicaid reimbursement rates for EMS. The bill was co-sponsored by state rep. Mike Andrade, who said medicaid payments have remained the same since 1976. Those raises in medicaid payments will start in July of this year 2023.

    They also passed HB 1314 that requires private insurance companies to negotiate rates directly with EMS providers so they can be better compensated, as well as changing some legal definitions for ambulance services which I believe I recall reading somewhere that was also meant to allow them to bill for more services. That law went into effect last year.

    So all of that along with this new tax is going to pay for everything mentioned. Amazing what can be done when you have tons of money.

    -- Posted by Raker on Wed, Jan 25, 2023, at 1:34 PM
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