KINGWOOD – A public meeting is once more being held to invite input on the Preston County EMS fee. The meeting will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday in the commission building behind the Courthouse Annex.
Commissioners are holding the meeting in order to gather input on an across-the-board EMS fee of $90 for businesses, nonprofits, residents and individuals with homestead discounts. Initially, nonprofits were going to be exempt, and seniors were only going to be assessed $75.
“We like to give the benefit of doubt for homestead discounts, but it’s only $15 more,” Commissioner Samantha Stone said. “I believe we have to set markers. If a business is doing well, it shouldn’t have to pay a higher fee. I don’t like to put a fee on nonprofits, but we wait and see what comes later.”
“I believe if its not flat across the board we’re opening ourselves up for problems,” Commission President Hunter Thomas said.
Stone said the commission should also look at businesses that attract mass gatherings. She said the $1 EMS fee on the tickets sold for these events should be revamped. She said if the mass gatherings ordinance was updated it could help bring in additional funds for EMS.
According to the ordinance draft, money from The Special Emergency Ambulance Service Fee Ordinance is to provide an adequate emergency ambulance system within the geographic boundaries of Preston County.
KAMP Ambulance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has been providing EMS service since 1972. According to its website, the only money that the agency gets is what they are reimbursed from insurance companies and self-paid patients for ambulance runs. “We are only being reimbursed 39 percent of what is billed. This is a decrease from the 50-55 percent we were receiving. This is due to contractual allowances with Medicare, Medicaid, and other insurance companies, which means that only a fraction of what is billed is actually paid. We are still trying to recover from the previous government shutdown and dealing with rising costs of mandatory supplies, fuel, wages, insurance, etc. This is the reason we have asked for assistance. This is not just a KAMP or Preston County issue. It is a nationwide issue.”
In other business, Interim KAMP Director Shawna Knotts explained a second payment was also due Wednesday. Commissioners tabled a request for emergency funding to pay vehicle insurance by KAMP Ambulance, with Thomas saying “he didn’t believe they could approve the request at this time without additional information.”
Commissioners would not comment on why KAMP Ambulance Director Pam Thomas stepped down as director of the ambulance squad. Thomas has been the longstanding representative and director of KAMP Ambulance for 40 years. Thomas plans to stay on as a paramedic and trainer.
The EMS Ordinance is just the latest in plans to keep the ambulance service available in the county.
As members of the 2016 Emergency Planning Committee, Pam Thomas, along with Marylin Metheny, President of the Terra Alta Ambulance Squad; Scott Spiker, Reedsville Fire Chief; Matthew Clarkson, Fellowsville Fire Chief; Dr. Fred Conley; Commissioner Dave Price, and Rodger Marshall, Facilities Maintenance Director for Preston County Schools, discussed the county EMS and volunteer fire departments.
During the meeting, they addressed the need to hold classes to train both firefighters and emergency medical technicians and the need to have enough people to cover shifts.
“I believe a four-year course for high school students would be of benefit,” Metheny said. “The students could take the necessary classes, pass the exams, graduate and find jobs as EMTs.”
“During the day, there are only four people to cover the shift – two retired people and two whose employers will let them go if there is a call,” Spiker said.
Thomas said KAMP could use an additional two or three medics and five more EMTs. She said KAMP isn’t reimbursed enough to allow paying the EMTs and medics the salaries they deserve. She said the squads currently bill Medicaid and Medicare electronically and receive payment within 30 days.
“Unfortunately, the payment is not always the amount that is billed. Medicaid and Medicare determine the amount and a $500 charge might receive a reimbursement of $100,” Thomas said.
In July 2024, commissioners worked to create an EMS Advisory Board during a special session. Commissioners were working on a system that would allow service to be provided to areas where ambulance squads had closed their doors. In 2021, KAMP Ambulance added a second station in the southern end of the county. It began as a temporary station in Newburg. It later moved to Fellowsville after the Fellowsville Volunteer Fire department purchased the old Mountaineer Ambulance building and allowed KAMP use of the building.
On May 21, Rowlesburg Ambulance shut its doors for the final time, leaving a hole that is currently being covered by the Terra Alta Ambulance Squad and KAMP Ambulance.
“We’ve worked on this for years. We’ve tried to give you the information. We’ve submitted budgets. We have a crew in Bruceton now because the Bruceton crew is not available,” Thomas said.
Stan Butler, a former ambulance squad member, said, speaking as a citizen, there is a problem.
“Everyone knows we have a problem with the ambulance,” he said. “This is a territorial thing. We only have four squads left. The county commission is ultimately in charge of providing ambulance service. You’d get more people coming in if you wouldn’t have this territorial thing. Eventually someone is going to die.”
Thomas said there is no territorial ambulance coverage breakdown in the county. She said all of the ambulance squads work together.
The County Commission has to provide EMS service under West Virginia Code 7-15-4, which reads: “Except as hereinafter provided and in addition to all other duties imposed upon it by law, the county commission shall cause emergency ambulance service to be made available to all the residents of the county where such service is not otherwise available: Provided, however, That the duty imposed upon county commissions by this article shall not be construed in such manner as to impose a duty to cause such emergency ambulance service to be provided unless the commission shall make an affirmative determination that there are funds available therefor by the inclusion of a projected expenditure for such purpose in the current levy estimate, and in the event that such county commission shall make such determination the commission shall not be under a duty to cause such service to be provided beyond a level commensurate with the amount of funds actually available for such purpose.”
