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ELY— A proposed three-way merger of ambulance services in Ely, Tower, and Babbitt, appears to be dead after Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital CEO Patti Banks said the hospital has suspended …
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ELY— A proposed three-way merger of ambulance services in Ely, Tower, and Babbitt, appears to be dead after Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital CEO Patti Banks said the hospital has suspended work on a study of the concept.
“It was made clear to us that Ely Area Ambulance did not want to participate in the system approach, so we are regrouping and moving forward with a different option,” Banks told the Ely Area Ambulance Joint Powers Board at their Jan. 14 meeting in Winton.
After Ely’s ambulance service ran short of funds two years ago, hospital officials hired SafeTech Solutions, a consultant specializing in rural EMS, in the summer of 2023 to propose better financial options for providing ambulance service in the local area. SafeTech developed a plan to merge the three area ambulance services into one system owned by the hospital. While operating costs would increase sharply under the plan, the proposed system would take advantage of the 101-percent Medicare cost reimbursement provision available only to rural critical access hospitals like EBCH.
Lake County Commissioner Joe Baltich, a member of the joint powers board, commented that the Ely ambulance had several reasons for being less than thrilled about the EBCH proposal. He referenced the recent dust-up over the revocation of the hospital’s federal critical access designation, which he said could put it out of business, an outcome that could leave a merged ambulance service as collateral damage.
Banks rebutted Baltich’s claim, noting that EBCH was one of four St. Louis County hospitals that received the revocation notices but that all of them were reinstated after submitting new applications to the federal government. The bureaucratic tempest in a teapot over the critical access status was covered in detail in the Jan. 17 issue of the Timberjay.
Another more substantive Baltich comment underscored the ongoing sour relationship between the Ely ambulance and the hospital. “We have 23 people on the ambulance service. Twenty-two of them have said that if we do this deal, they’re quitting and they’re not going to do the EMT services anymore.”
In other business, the members of the joint powers board sparred over how the local governments should be billed for their contribution toward operations of the Ely ambulance. The ambulance service rocked the boat last week when it sent invoices directly to Fall Lake and Morse townships for the second half of 2024. The move disregarded the financial arrangements made by the board to use the city of Ely as its fiscal agent.
The joint powers board represents the four communities — Ely, Winton, Fall Lake, and Morse — that financially support Ely’s nonprofit ambulance. It also owns the facility that the ambulance service uses in downtown Ely.
Baltich, who is on the ambulance board, noted that the ambulance board had billed communities directly prior to 2020, adding, “We need to be able to do that … It was paid directly from the governmental entity back then.”
JPB chair Marlene Zorman pointed out that the joint powers board voted on Oct. 18, 2022, that Ely would handle all invoices and disbursements as the board’s fiscal agent.
Ely Clerk-Treasurer Harold Langowski took issue with the undated invoices, claiming they did not accurately reflect what was actually paid (by the two townships) for the 2024 subsidy. Langowski argued that if the ambulance reverted to direct invoicing, it would complicate the accounting process and make it difficult to track the financial arrangements between the ambulance service and the four joint powers board communities.
“We have spent a tremendous amount of time with our auditor putting together the JPB account within our accounting processes at the city of Ely,” said the clearly unhappy Langowski. “If somebody else would like to take it over and do it some other way, have at it. I will give you the fund balance at the end of 2024, and we’ll transfer it to any other entity that wants it. Because I tell you what, this is quite upsetting. I thought we were all on the same page.”
Langowski recommended that the ambulance service send the money it received back to Fall Lake. Then Ely would send out corrected invoices to all four communities for the remainder of the 2024 subsidy. The joint powers board voted to approve Langowski’s suggestion and the ambulance service board members at the meeting agreed to return the money it received from Fall Lake. Morse had not yet paid the invoice it received from the ambulance service.
In other business, the ambulance joint powers board:
• Approved the second half of the 2024 operating expenses subsidy at a rate of $20.20 per capita. The amounts from each of the four communities are: Ely, $32,000; Fall Lake, $6,400; Morse, $11,750; and Winton, $1,670. Fall Lake currently receives $32,000 from Lake County for ambulance services, which is approximately twice what they will be billed annually for operation subsidies and building expenses.
• Approved spending $3,933 for an archeological and historic survey at the property and building it owns and leases to the Ely ambulance. The vendor for the survey is the Duluth Archeological Center. The study needs to be completed before construction can start. The study is a requirement for the federal grant that funds the project.
• Received the report from the ambulance service that the audit of 2022 was finally completed and that the four JPB communities could receive a copy of the audit results if they requested one.