MedTrans Sues City Over Planned Ambulance Service

Ventura County’s largest ambulance provider has filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking the Ventura Fire Department from starting up its own ambulance service, set to begin operating July 1.

MedTrans Inc., which filed the suit through its subsidiary, Pruner Health Services, charges that the city of Ventura does not have the legal authority to operate its own ambulance service and is putting its citizens at risk with an untested system.

“The issue before the court is essentially whether they can seize a business and go into it themselves,” said Steven Murphy, vice president of government relations for MedTrans.

Murphy said his company has requested Superior Court Judge Joe D. Hadden to issue an injunction preventing the Fire Department from going forward with its plans until the lawsuit can be heard. A hearing in Hadden’s Simi Valley courtroom is scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday.

Ventura Fire Chief Dennis Downs said he was disappointed by MedTrans’ action, but confident that the city will be able to begin its ambulance service as scheduled.

“I feel very comfortable about our position,” he said. “I truly believe we will prevail in court.”

Downs said he believes his department can offer a higher level of service at less cost than MedTrans is providing. MedTrans and two other firms now contract with the county to provide paramedic ambulance service to the entire region.

Under its present agreement with the county, MedTrans is required to respond to emergency calls within 11 minutes 90% of the time. By comparison, Downs said, his department’s ambulance paramedics would be able to respond within six minutes.

“It just happens that this time frame is critical in emergency calls for patients who have stopped breathing,” he said. “After four to six minutes, they can suffer irreparable brain damage.”

But Murphy said MedTrans is already providing quick response times. He said that while the county requires MedTrans to respond within 11 minutes in most cases, ambulances arrive within six minutes in the majority of calls received in Ventura.

“We meet the same performance standards,” he said.

In March, Ventura became the first city in the county to start its own firefighter paramedic program and recently purchased four ambulances in preparation for launching its emergency transfer service.

“We’ve been working toward this a long time,” said Amy Albano, assistant city attorney. “We’re feeling very confident in our legal position.”

Under state law, Albano said, any city or fire department that was providing “pre-hospital emergency care” before 1980 can continue to provide that service or even expand it. She said city firefighters have been providing basic life support and rescue services since the 1960s.

But that law is being challenged in the state Supreme Court by San Bernardino County and a private ambulance provider, which have jointly sued the city of San Bernardino over its ambulance paramedic program. The ruling in this case could ultimately determine the fate of the Ventura Fire Department’s plans for its ambulance service.

Meanwhile, Ventura County supervisors Tuesday approved new service rates for MedTrans, Ojai Ambulance and Gold Coast Ambulance. The new rates will be phased in over six months.

Under the first phase, the fee charged for emergency transfers would go from $296.75 to $327.50, beginning July 18. The fee would increase again to $352 Jan. 1. Nonemergency transfers would go from $240 to $268 under the first phase, and to $290 under the second.

As part of the five-year contract, the ambulance companies will be required to respond to emergency calls in most cities in 10 minutes, rather than the present 10 minutes and 59 seconds.

After a centralized dispatch system is established by the three ambulance companies in partnership with the Sheriff’s Department, response times in cities would be further reduced to 8 minutes and 30 seconds, officials said. Failure to meet these requirements would result in a financial penalty.