How Much Money Does Keller EMS Take In (Net)?

 Doug Arnold--He May Need Refresher Course in Accounting

If you haven't kept up with the Colbert E-911 ambulance controversy, here's a quick synopsis. Bryan Gibson has founded Shoals Ambulance Company, an entity the City of Muscle Shoals wants to use as its primary responder within its boundaries. The Colbert E-911 Board says sorry, no can do. They award the service contracts and have awarded the sole contract to Keller EMS. Keller has stated that any competition will cause it to go out of business, having lost 2K already this year according to Keller CEO Doug Arnold. Really?

Let's look at available figures for past years. Keller charges a base rate of $440.00 for a service run. It answered 8K calls during the last year for which statistics are available, for a gross income of $3,520,000.00. This amount doesn't include any non-emergency runs.

How many of these 8K emergency runs did Keller actually receive payment for? A source tells us that 70% is a reasonable figure to use. This rate includes both insurance and private payments. How much does insurance pay? A quick check online shows that insurance reimbursement runs around 80%. Some of the remaining 20% in charges are paid by the individual and some are written off.

Using the above figures, the actual gross income for Keller EMS would have been $1,971,200.00. Using these same figures, we could reasonably assume the gross income for the first quarter of 2012 would have been $492,800.00--at least. From this amount would be subtracted utilities, salaries, fuel, ambulance maintenance, fees, and replacement of used/outdated supplies. How much would the net income for Keller be? Since we have no actual amounts for the above expenses, that would be impossible for us to say. What we do say is, using normal accounting practices that pro-rate depreciation, etc., a gross income of almost 493K (and it's obviously much higher due to non-emergency runs) that results in a 2K net loss seems extremely unusual, particularly for a well established company.

Note: If any of our readers have more accurate figures on actual percentages of fees collected and/or reimbursed, please forward them to us. Many thanks.



Shoalanda

Elvis Adam Presley Loves His Mama...

...and his mama loves him...enough to get herself arrested...twice. Elvis Presley is a name familiar to Franklin County authorities for more than music. Elvis (middle name Adam) Presley, then age 23, was arrested in March 2008 for theft of a purse and cellphone in the Walmart parking lot. He received five years probation.

After violating the terms of his probation, Presley was remanded to the Franklin County Community Corrections program, from which he escaped in January 2010. His mama agreed to hide him under some clothes in her closet, but unfortunately for the Presley family, officers found the escapee and arrested mama and Presley's girlfriend in the process.

After his release, Presley once more made news in June 2011, this time sans his mama, when he robbed an acquaintance at knife point in downtown Russellville. He was charged with First Degree Theft in the crime that netted him $250.00. Later that year, Presley again faced charges when he was indicted for Third Degree Burglary and Second Degree Criminal Mischief in November. Presley again took it on the run and made Franklin County's most wanted list.

After capture, he was again granted probation, but managed an arrest for Public Intoxication and Probation Violation on March 5th. By now the Franklin County Jail must have seemed like a second home to Presley, who turned to mama for help...in smuggling drugs into the facility. Sadly for both Presleys, the phone call was monitored, and 53 year-old Kathy Presley once more joined her son in jail. Ah, a mother's love. Let's hope they let him buy her a card for Mother's Day.

*****

Has the Colbert County E-911 Board caused the Shoals to lose 130 new jobs? Stay tuned for the Muscle Shoals City Council meeting Monday night--no charge for the fireworks.



Shoalanda

RegionalCare is Lesser of Two Evils

We recently mentioned that two local physicians support RegionalCare over the Helen Keller/Huntsville Hospital alliance. A reader asked:

Drs Heaton and Ba'albaki's letter leaves some unanswered questions:

1. How could a hospital in Colbert county pay taxes to both Colbert and Lauderdale County? I am sure they have this all worked out with the tax people at the courthouses.

2. The agreement/contract to sell ECM to Regional Care specified that the new hospital be built in Lauderdale County. How are they going to get around this?

3. How can 2 hospitals be combined without significant loss of jobs at one hospital or both?

They may be HEART doctors but it seems they are trying to mess with our MINDS.

We'll attempt to answer partially--although such answers may be debatable. The Coffee Health Group was non-profit and probably paid little or no taxes to the county governments--remember they owned hospitals in both Colbert and Lauderdale. Therefore, Lauderdale, if it should be deprived of tax revenue from RegionalCare, won't be losing any longstanding tax dollars.

As recently as last August, ECM CEO Joe Roach was still painting a rosy picture of a state-of-the-art facility in Lauderdale County. If that should be of great importance to Lauderdale citizens, they may just be out of luck. The Coffee Health Group has no desire to negate the contract and take back the hospitals. RegionalCare has already changed the name of the proposed facility once, so we doubt that anything is written in stone.

Considering the size of the new facility, we don't foresee many losing their jobs if Keller were to be swept up by RegionalCare. As it is now, no one seems to have job security at either hospital.

We hope that other physicians and department heads will offer some input into these questions. We welcome all comments, both pro and con; however, as the title of today's blog suggests, RegionalCare would seem to be the lesser of two evils. Lauderdale County has no choice--Colbert does. If you're a citizen of Colbert County, please make your wishes known to the county commission.

*****

The Connection has published Part I in their series of articles on the Colbert 911 missing funds: Link



Shoalanda

Tony Randall Woods: Yes, It's Capital Murder

Tony Randall Woods and his wife Tammie argued on the night of July 13th; as she drove away, he shot into her vehicle. Tammie Woods managed to drive one mile from the home the two had once shared before she collapsed and later died. Tony Woods has now been charged and arraigned with Capital Murder--if convicted he will either forfeit his life or spend the remainder of it in an Alabama maximum security prison.

Woods claims that although he did shoot intentionally, fatally wounding his wife was not his intention. Sorry, Mr. Woods, you have now met the law in Alabama: fire into an occupied vehicle, killing any occupant, and you are guilty of Capital Murder, no matter your intentions.

Mr. Woods may arrange a plea deal, or he may be tried and found not guilty for whatever rationale the jurors find that suits their collective conscience. That would still not make Tony Randall Woods any less guilty of Capital Murder by the letter of the law. If you don't like the law, legislate to change it. Alabama certainly maintains a laundry list of Capital Murder offenses. That in itself does not make Woods any less guilty.

Tony Randall Woods is a murderer, an abuser, and a coward. Let's all pray for justice for Tammie Woods.

*****

How do you embezzle 40K and your family not know it? We've received that question concerning the Colbert 911 office manager recently terminated for the alleged payroll theft of over 41K. While such a sum considered as a whole may seem large, one needs to remember that this was taken over a period of time and done via legal payroll.

We may assume that only 30K or so actually reached the office manager, and this could have well been over a time frame of five years or more. Would anyone notice their friend or neighbor had an extra 6K a year in income? Probably not. Would her husband or other family notice? The office manager has stated her husband had a very good job; even so, driving each day from a remote community, raising two young sons, paying utilities in super cold or super hot weather, plus helping parents whom she admitted had financial problems would soon add up. No, we don't think it odd at all that her husband, family, and friends suspected nothing.

Do we think this office manager should be prosecuted, or simply allowed to repay any missing money? Our personal choice would be the latter, but unfortunately many insurance companies demand criminal prosecution of such money crimes. How many people fall into such traps, not thinking of the consequences? More than most of us realize.

*****

The Alabama Department of Education has notified us that the teaching license revocation hearing of Brian Keith McGuire will be held December 14-15, 2010, in a location yet to be named. A reader recently sent us a thought provoking question:

Do you think it's funny McGuire was found not guilty of rape last year, but wound up in prison anyway? (McGuire is reportedly now working as a prison guard.) Yes, the irony was not lost on us. At the end of the day, McGuire does go home to a wide screen television, Internet, a comfortable bed, decent food, or whatever amenities he may have; yet he spends the majority of most waking days with those who are not the most scintillating of companions. O. Henry could not have written it better.


Shoalanda