The Valle Ambulance District has filed a lawsuit against Jefferson County seeking payment of a $1,108.40 bill for care the district provided to an inmate at the county Jail last September.
James Kreitler, the ambulance district’s attorney, said the suit is something of a test case, and if the ambulance district prevails, it will seek a much larger payment from the county – somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000.
“I think we have about 50 of these (unpaid bill) cases,” Kreitler said. “If we did them all at one time, it would take a long time. We wanted to do the one case, push it through and get a decision and then see how that would apply to all the others.”
When the lawsuit was filed in January in Jefferson County Circuit Court, it originally named the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office as the defendant, but in March the suit was revised by mutual agreement to make the county the defendant.
Also in March, Div. 5 Circuit Court Judge Victor Melenbrink denied the county’s motion to dismiss the case, and a case review hearing is set for June 7.
Kreitler said he expects the case to go further up the ladder before it comes to a conclusion.
“Both sides will appeal to at least one more level,” he said. “That would then be binding precedent, and if the Sheriff’s Office didn’t settle, we could file suit for the rest of the cases.”
The facts and figures of the case aren’t in dispute; both sides agree that Valle Ambulance has provided services to inmates at the county jail and that the inmates ultimately are responsible for paying for those services.
However, the two sides have different views about who is responsible for making sure the payments are made, and both sides cite state statutes to support their position.
Two sides of the same coin
The ambulance district maintains that the jailer is responsible for not only providing care for prisoners but also for ensuring that the agency providing that care gets paid.
“We go out, provide the transport or the care, and boom, we’re done,” Kreitler said. “We shouldn’t be asking for payment, chasing billing.”
Valle bills the inmates’ private insurance, and gets paid for some of the calls.
“The rest goes to our collection agency,” Kreitler said. “And after a while, it just falls off as bad debt. We have north of $100,000 in unpaid bills and fees (for county Jail inmate care). The statute says the responsibility to pay lies with the inmate, but it talks about the county being the agency that collects the money.”
He pointed out wording in state statutes that refers to ways in which inmates are required to repay “the county” for costs associated with their incarceration.
Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak takes a different view.
“I believe state statute outlines that the responsibility is on the individual who receives the care,” he said. “For example, an inmate has a heart attack and needs to be transported to a medical facility. We make the call and Valle comes and picks the inmate up.
“But it’s ludicrous to think that someone who calls for someone else to get help is now on the hook just because they made the call. I do not believe that if your neighbor called for EMS because you fell in your driveway, your neighbor should have to pay the bill if you don’t. That’s absurd.”
Marshak said the Sheriff’s Office provides services to the ambulance district that it doesn’t get paid for.
“I do not send Valle Ambulance a bill every time a citizen asks for EMS and (Valle) asks for a deputy to go to the scene first for their safety,” he said.
But Valle says that’s an apples-to-oranges comparison.
“What he’s missing is that we’re not doing it (providing care) for them (the Sheriff’s Office); we’re doing it for inmates,” Kreitler said.
Clarification may be
on the way
Kreitler said House Bill 1051, which currently is before the state Legislature, would clarify the argument by amending the current statute.
The proposed amendment reads, in part, “If the medical costs are not paid within 60 days by the prisoner’s health insurance policy or by the prisoner’s assets, the county shall reimburse the entity that incurred such medical costs.”
Valle representatives say they have tried to come to an agreement with the Sheriff’s Office but have been rebuffed.
“People come from all over the county requiring care, and residents of Valle are footing the bill,” Kreitler said. “We reached out to the Sheriff’s Office and were told basically to go fly a kite. We tried to work it out, but eventually it’s just gone nowhere and we felt like we had no choice.”
Marshak is just as adamant in his position.
“Valle Ambulance bills their taxpayers, they bill the detainee, they bill us, and now they are suing the taxpayers to again go back to the well to support themselves,” he said. “I imagine their attorneys gave themselves high-fives when the Board of Directors decided to sue us.
“This is attempting to mandate government health care. They’re removing the responsibility from the person and putting it back on the government. To me, this lawsuit is frivolous and, in the end, it’s the taxpayers who will lose.”
Ultimately, it will come down to what a judge decides, Kreitler said.
“The facts aren’t in dispute; this is about a rule of law,” he said. “We need a court to rule on whose responsibility this is.”