Pleasant Bay Ambulance Service turned to the Franklin County Circuit Court last week in its latest effort to resume ambulance service across Franklin County.
In a lawsuit filed January 20, 2015 by Tuscumbia attorney Billy Underwood on behalf of Pleasant Bay Ambulance Service, Inc., the company, owned by Elzie and Martha Malone of Red Bay, seeks an injunction and money damages against the City of Russellville, Franklin County and the City of Red Bay, with allegations ranging from collusion to bid rigging in the county-wide ambulance bid process that saw Shoals Ambulance Service awarded the bid last fall.
According to the lawsuit, Pleasant Bay has done business in Franklin County for more than 16 years. In 2014, the Franklin County Commission created the Franklin County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Committee to design minimum standards in anticipation of a bid process for a single ambulance provider to serve the entire county. The municipalities of Russellville and Red Bay both agreed to be part of that process, while Phil Campbell, which is served by the Phil Campbell Rescue Squad, opted out of the county-wide contract.
In June of 2014, the commission, following the recommendation of the EMS Committee, awarded the bid to Shoals Ambulance. After a series of disagreements about the contract language, negotiations fell through and no contract was signed. The minimum standards were rewritten and the bid process redone, again leading to Shoals Ambulance receiving the bid in September, though the company did not begin service until October.
Throughout the bid process, Pleasant Bay continued to provide ambulance service in much of Franklin County. After Transcare Ambulance did not receive the county bid, the company pulled out of Red Bay at the end of June and Pleasant Bay picked up Red Bay calls until Shoals Ambulance began operating under its contract.
Shoals Ambulance officials have complained to the Franklin County Commission and the EMS Committee about Pleasant Bay continuing to run ambulance calls in Franklin County, even though Shoals Ambulance's contract calls for it to be the exclusive provider for ambulance service in the county.
At its December 9, 2014 meeting the Franklin County EMS Committee voted to write a letter to the Franklin County Commission and the City of Russellville requesting each entity to notify Pleasant Bay, in writing, “to immediately cease and desist operations in Franklin County.”
The committee also asked Franklin County probate judge Barry Moore to request the county and city attorneys to write letters to each medical facility in Franklin County and inform them “that Franklin County by ordinance has only one ambulance service with permission to operate in Franklin County.”
Letters dated December 15, 2014, were sent to Malone by Franklin County attorney Roger Bedford requesting the said action, and by Russellville police chief Chris Hargett and Russellville fire chief Joe Mansell, notifying Pleasant Bay of being in violation of City of Russellville Ordinance 2014-200, for not being under contract with the Franklin County Commission and for not having been issued annual ambulance vehicle permits for each of its fleet vehicles.
The Franklin Free Press also obtained a copy of a letter from Bedford to Burns Nursing Home in Russellville, advising the nursing home administrators that Pleasant Bay was sent cease and desist letters by the county and city and that Shoals Ambulance, LLC, had exclusive contractual rights to provide ambulance service in Franklin County.
As far as emergency 911 calls, Underwood acknowledges his client has no claim to those and has not been running emergency calls. Where Underwood and Pleasant Bay take issue, however, is with the blanket statement that the company can not do business in Franklin County.
Underwood said his client continues to run Medicaid/Medicare calls in Franklin County and is legally entitled to do so.
“We're not asking they be reinstated as the county ambulance provider. They should be allowed to pick up Medicare/Medicaid patients if called,” Underwood said. “[Russellville] Hospital is trying to put them out of business by funneling everything to Shoals Ambulance. Elzie has contacts because he's been doing business, so people contact Pleasant Bay.
“There's an incestuous relationship at the hospital with a woman named Belinda Johnson who's their head of nursing and who also sits on the EMS board that sets all these rules. She sent a letter to every nurse and staff member at Russellville Hospital telling them they could not let Pleasant Bay pick anybody up."
Russellville Hospital administrators declined to comment on Underwood’s allegations.
Underwood said the injunctive relief his client seeks results from City of Russellville officials “stating they were going to ticket him and stop his pursuit of a lawful business.”
Underwood's legal position rests upon a provision in Section 1 (Purpose, Applicability, Title) of the Franklin County Minimum Standards for EMS Providers. It reads in part:
B. The provisions of these minimum standards shall apply to the operation of any EMS provider, which has a patient pickup point within Franklin County, Alabama, except when operated by a federal or state agency (emphasis added).
Underwood asserts that Pleasant Bay, by virtue of transporting individuals back and forth from nursing homes and hospitals or their homes if they are called is a federal business exemptee. In support of his claim, Underwood cited an October 15, 2014 letter from DB Consulting Group, LLC, a full-service General Services Administration Contract Firm, retained by Pleasant Bay to obtain the company a GSA Multiple Award Schedule/Contract.
The letter indicates Pleasant Bay obtained the certification, thus allowing it to bid on federal government contracts.
“In effect, they are an eligible federal contractor,” asserts Jerry Bishop, DB Consulting Group vice president, in the letter. “In about 30 days we hope to have them certified as a GSA/MAS Contractor that can be used by any Federal Agency with a simple phone call.”
Bishop also stated in his letter that “Mr. Malone asked me to write this letter in hopes that this would provide justification for Pleasant Bay Ambulance Services, Inc., to be covered by the Federal contractor exemption stated in the County Ordinance Paragraph referenced above.”
Underwood also cites 42 U.S.C. 1395A of the Social Security Act, which provides that “any individual entitled to insurance benefits under this title may obtain health services from any institution, agency or person qualified to participate under this title if such institution, agency or person undertakes to provide him such services.”
Underwood sent a letter to Russellville Hospital administrator Christine Stewart last week notifying her of his client's assertions relating to patient pick-up and transport, he said.
Pleasant Bay purchased a 2014 City of Russellville business license that expired on December 31, 2014. The lawsuit claims the defendants interfered with the company's right to do business within the city.
“I'm not familiar with any interruption of their business,” said Russellville city attorney Danny McDowell, after reviewing the lawsuit Thursday. “In fact, we specifically said he had the license and there wasn't anything to prevent him doing business in that license period. He was supposed to get those ambulances inspected and permitted during that license period, which he never did, though."
That failure to properly have ambulances inspected, equipped and permitted, McDowell said, was repeatedly brought to Malone's attention, and formed the basis of the December 'cease and desist' letter.
McDowell said the city's position was that Pleasant Bay is not a federal or state agency, but rather a private company. Additionally, McDowell said when the Russellville City Council voted to join the county's ambulance services contract, it “agreed to abide by the bid process of the Franklin County Commission. The City of Russellville had nothing to do with the awarding of the contract,” McDowell said.
“All municipalities in the county agreed to fall under the minimum standards so we'd have one ambulance service in the county uniformly regulated to create a better standard of care for all citizens of Franklin County,” McDowell said.
At its January 20, 2015 meeting, the Russellville City Council amended the city's ambulance ordinance by adding penalties for violations to the permitting and inspection process. While the process was previously in place, no penalties were enumerated in the ordinance.
Bedford, who represents both Franklin County and the City of Red Bay, said Pleasant Bay took part in the bid process, but ultimately, did not present a plan that satisfied the standards set forth by the EMS Committee.
“This is a frivolous lawsuit filed by a business whose bid did not meet the requirements of the RFP [request for proposal],” Bedford said. “Pleasant Bay is a good company but did not meet the standard of safety that the EMS Committee, along with the county and the city, requested. Shoals Ambulance did. I thought the county and city were very open and transparent in the bidding process."
As far as Pleasant Bay's claim that it is somehow exempted from the county ordinance because of making Medicare or Medicaid calls, Bedford said that legal argument also falls short.
“If you get on this vendor list, the Veterans Administration may use you or may not use you. It's analogous to this. If the health department comes in and gives a business a health rating and they pass, if the ordinance says you've also got to have a business license, and you don't have one, you're not properly licensed to do business,” Bedford said.
The lawsuit seeks specific monetary relief of $30,000 against Shoals Ambulance Service for “tortuous interference with the right of Plaintiff to do business within the City of Russellville and Franklin County.”
Interestingly, though, Shoals Ambulance Service is not named as a defendant in the civil action.
An additional $10,000 in damages are sought from Franklin County, the City of Russellville and City of Red Bay for tortuous interference with right of Pleasant Bay to do business.
Underwood also asked the court to set the matter for an immediate hearing where he will seek a temporary injunction after showing the court “Pleasant Bay is a federally-licensed EMS provider and, as such, falls in the exception of Section 1(B) to do business within Franklin County.”
The final count seeks that the contract between Shoals Ambulance and Franklin County be set aside as a result of alleged unfair activities.
“They gave them a license to do business in Russellville and then kicked them out another way. I just don't think you can do that,” Underwood said.
