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A committee formed by the Washington County Board of Supervisors is analyzing how best to keep ambulance services at its current level and how to fund it. The current contract expires June 30, 2020. Supervisor Richard Young is also the director of Washington County Ambulance and has announced he is retiring from the ambulance on June 30th. At Tuesday’s supervisors’ meeting, Supervisor Jack Seward explained why Young is a member of the advisory committee, “If we’re going to plan on this succeeding ambulance coverage, Richard (Young) is the subject-matter expert in this area. And so, any questions that anybody has about, ‘If we do this, what would that mean? If we do that, what would that mean? Can we do this?’ That’s why Richard has been involved in this, because he’s had 30 years experience and knows what’s going on. As he said this is not going to benefit him financially, so there is no conflict of interest.”

At this time, ambulance services are provided by Washington County Ambulance, which is under a one-year contract extension with the county at $20,000 per month.

The advisory committee will consider different options to have ambulance services continue, from making it a county department to having a non-profit organization formed, to contracting with an outside service provider. Ambulance and emergency medical services are not considered an essential service by the State of Iowa and are not funded by the state, and are not required like law enforcement and fire departments. Also, Young says the change to the Managed Care Organizations resulted in lower reimbursement rates for ambulance services, making it more difficult for providers to fund their work.

The advisory committee includes representatives from each of the city councils in the county, he fire department association, emergency medical services, WCHC, public health, and WEDG. These meetings are open to the public.