State rule threatens local ambulance monopoly
| Thursday, Feb 04 2010 05:54 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Feb 04 2010 05:54 PM
Ambulance companies in Kern County are preparing to battle a proposed state guideline "clarification" that threatens their control over swaths of business turf they own exclusively under county rules.
The monopolies were blessed by county supervisors in 2006.
But a change at the state level could open up ownership of those exclusive zones to a competitive bidding process -- potentially allowing outside ambulance companies to snatch Kern County zones from the local ambulance outfits that have held them for years.
"If we held competitive bids for our exclusive operating areas, I'm sure we'd get bids" from major statewide ambulance companies, said Kern County Emergency Medical Services Director Ross Elliot. "The Bakersfield market is a lucrative one."
The battle centers on how state guidelines define the word "grandfathered."
The California Emergency Medical Services Authority is considering rewording guideline 141 -- which controls the state's 201 exclusive ambulance operating zones -- to more closely define what "grandfather" means, Elliot said.
"We are clarifying, not changing, existing guidelines that have been in place for more than 20 years," said authority spokesperson June Iljana Thursday.
But Kern County officials, and ambulance company advocates, are calling the move a power grab that could threaten the delicate structure devised to give each of Kern's ambulance companies a protected section of the county to serve.
Elliot helped craft the Kern County ambulance ordinance and isn't particularly fond of the state idea.
He said the EMS Authority feels the language change is needed "to make sure the state doesn't run afoul of federal law" against monopolies.
But he said the state is doing far more than is needed to achieve its stated goal.
"These go way too far -- way beyond what they need to -- to meet federal standard," he said.
He said the rules would also put a 10-year limit on the length of the exclusive agreement -- a condition Elliot said would limit companies' willingness to invest in equipment, training and personnel to serve county citizens.
Hall Ambulance spokesman Larry Moxley, speaking for the Kern County Ambulance Association, asked the Kern County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to take a formal stance in opposition to the changes in guideline 141.
Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall's company serves most of Kern County, including the Bakersfield area.
Moxley said the rule is "an end-run around local authority."
Essentially, he said, the state is trying to come into Kern County and blow up the local plan for providing ambulance services to citizens.
Iljana said the state will take public comment on the change until Feb. 25.
Following that period, she said, authority staff will consider the input and decide whether to amend their clarification or send rule 141 to the Commission on Emergency Medical Services, which would make the final decision.
"We look forward to robust public participation in this process," Iljana said.
Supervisors referred Moxley's request to staff. A report could come back in a week or two, in time for supervisors' opinions to make it up to the state.
