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LifeLine Paramedics closes doors LifeLine Paramedics has ceased operations in Thomasville this week. The ambulance service was founded in 2005, based in Thomasville. It served Thomasville and the surrounding areas. Owner Vida McDaniel said the decision to close was a difficult one, but the ambulance's owners were no longer able to subsidize the service financially, "particularly when we were told to just serve Thomasville," she said. "We wanted the process to be open to scrutiny so people would be able to see that it is a complex issue," McDaniel said. Jackson Emergency Transport Services (JETS) says it will provide ambulance service for the entire county in the wake of the closing of LifeLine Paramedics. LifeLine manager Jonah Thomas confirmed Tuesday that LifeLine would cease operations at 8 a.m. Wednesday, March 26. Concern over the fate of LifeLine has been discussed by Roy Waite, county Emergency Management Agency director, and county mayors over the last several weeks. The company met recently with Thomasville's Healthcare Authority, and the Thomasville City Council had previously approved $25,000 to the authority that could have been used to bolster ambulance services. The problems for the company were made worse, Thomas said, after the two county ambulance services, LifeLine and JETS, agreed to have the county territory divided, beginning on Feb. 13. Coffeeville, Jackson and Grove Hill was in Jets territory, and Fulton and Thomasville were under LifeLine. Previously, patients from the Grove Hill Memorial Hospital were LifeLine's "main source of income," Thomas said. With the new territory division which took Grove Hill away from LifeLine, the company went from losing $5,000 to $6,000-a-month to collecting $30,000-a-month and spending $70,000-a-month. With agreeing to the new territory division, Thomas said the company expected to eventually receive a subsidy from the City of Thomasville. Officials with JETS met with Waite Tuesday morning and will enlarge their service to cover the entire county. JETS planned to begin covering Thomasville Wednesday. Current employees have committed to overtime work to fill the need until JETS can hire additional employees to handle the coverage area. Employees with LifeLine have put in applications with JETS, Waite said. JETS will have two ambulances both in Jackson and Thomasville and one in Grove Hill. "That's exactly the amount of ambulances we have right now," Waite said. "…We should have the exact same coverage that we have right now," which Waite said was adequate 95 percent of the time. JETS, which serves Clarke and Washington counties, has a total of seven ambulances in its fleet. The EMA had previously contacted a certified public accountant to review the financial information of both LifeLine and JETS. The purpose was to "look at the amount of income vs. the number of calls, the private pay vs. insurance, all the stuff, and should you be able to break even…or is truly a supplement needed and if so how much," Waite explained. LifeLine had already turned over their financial data to the CPA, Waite said. JETS still plans to turn over its information, also. "(Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day) had asked that we continue with that process to look at where they are, to see if we need a supplement." An ambulance service in Clarke County must deal with customers who have no insurance or are underinsured. 'We have a lot of Medicare- Medicaid patients in the county," Waite said. "…Obviously that doesn't pay the full ambulance bill." The rising costs of gasoline also can't help. "Most of our transfers go from the three hospitals here to hospitals in Mobile. You're looking at an extended time that the ambulance is gone out of the county. That's been one issue with keeping good coverage in the county."
Arthur McLean contributed to this report.
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