(Red Oak) Red Oak City Administrator Lisa Kotter told the Board of Supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting that emergency medical services (EMS) in the county have reached a critical decision point. While the current system is functioning operationally, she said it is not sustainable in the long term.
Kotter explained that Red Oak operates a full-time EMS service providing 24-hour paramedic coverage at an annual cost of $1.8 million. In contrast, other communities in the county rely on volunteers or have limited—or in some cases no—EMS response. Despite these differences in service levels, all county residents are billed by the City of Red Oak for EMS services they receive, generating approximately $400,000 in annual revenue.
Kotter mentioned that Red Oak City taxpayers are the only city providing a regular, planned funding source for a service used across all communities. She added that they do receive a small amount of money from tier funding. That is when a Red Oak paramedic gets into another service’s ambulance. That service bills the patient, and the City of Red Oak bills the ambulance service for assisting with the patient.
Over the past six months, Kotter said no communities outside of Red Oak have responded to the call to contribute to the service’s funding. She added that without an agreement in Montgomery County, EMS coverage outside of Red Oak may be unreliable.
District 5 County Supervisor Alex Burton took exception to that.
Kotter says that is not what they wanted to do. Kotter says they asked the outside communities six months ago for feedback on what they could afford. She says they have become more assertive and have offered to ramp up the fees in thirds. She says they have not received any feedback.
District #2 supervisor Mike Olson, this needs to be solved—the EMS issue.
County Supervisor Bryant Amos suggests the county begin the process of declaring EMS an essential service. This topic will be placed on the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors’ agenda next week.
In 2021, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 615, allowing counties to designate emergency medical service (EMS) departments as essential county services, placing them equally with state law enforcement and fire departments. The designation opens more funding opportunities to departments across Iowa’s 99 counties. A county’s board of supervisors can place a tax on the ballot for voter approval to benefit EMS departments.
