A new agreement is set to make Vicksburg’s ambulance operation profitable for the first time in more than 55 years.
Mayor Willis Thompson announced Tuesday that the city reached terms to provide ambulance transportation services for Merit Health River Region. The groundbreaking move by the mayor and other city leaders is expected to make the service cashflow positive for the first time since Vicksburg began offering the ambulance operation in 1969.
Under the agreement, the Vicksburg Fire Department will provide emergency and nonemergency hospital transports, including basic life support, advanced life support, and specialty-care transportation. The city, according to the mayor, will bill patients and their insurers for eligible transports. The hospital will compensate the city for certain transports that cannot legally be billed to a patient or insurer, including qualifying transports involving uninsured patients.
“This agreement is projected to move our ambulance operation into a surplus for the first time since the City began providing the service,” Thompson said in a statement. “It’s a major step toward strengthening the City’s finances while continuing to deliver an essential public service. It’s a practical agreement that makes sense for the hospital, the City, and the people we serve.”
Revenue generated through the agreement will help support Vicksburg Fire Department personnel, vehicles, equipment, and other resources required to provide ambulance service, the mayor added. Vicksburg is among a limited number of Mississippi municipalities that operate their own ambulance service.
“This is what building a safer, stronger, smarter Vicksburg looks like,” Thompson continued. “We’re creating additional opportunities for our dedicated fire department employees, generating new revenue, and applying sound business practices to improve city government.”