VIDEO: Chickasaw County Faces an Expensive Hike in Ambulance Service Prices

CHICKASAW COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Chickasaw County face an emergency situation when it comes to medical response.

A request from MedStat for an extra quarter of a million dollars has supervisors searching through an already tight county budget.

This proposal comes after MedStat says it lost more than $180,000 providing services in Chickasaw County.

The price hike caught the board of supervisors off guard, now they are hoping to find a cheaper alternative.

Chickasaw County supervisors believe having an ambulance service is vital.

However the county’s budget may not be able to handle a price hike from it’s current provider, MedStat.

“Our first meeting, when we discovered that the contract was going to run out October 31, they gave a proposal of a $250,000 increase, and we don’t have that. We didn’t have that in the budget,” said District 5 Supervisor, Russell King.

With Trace Regional’s emergency room closed, ambulances take patients to neighboring counties.

After the proposal, supervisors voted to accept bids from other companies.

“There’s no way we can go into another contract with them without having a bidding process to see what we can come up with. It’s just a matter of waiting until October 2nd and getting all the bids in,” said King.

Currently, two ambulances are stationed in the county.

One is based in Houston and the other in Okolona.

When one of the two ambulances is called, the second one comes to Van Vleet, because it’s the most central location.

That way, if another call is made, it’s around the same distance in all directions.

Supervisors are pleased with the services provided and the number of employees but say they simply can’t afford a larger bill.

“If we had, you know, two full-time ambulances here in the county, plus a truck to do some of the transfers, that would really benefit us, you know, as far as covering the people in the county,” said King.

Supervisors says there is interest from other companies.

A MedStat representative tells us in a phone interview they have never left a county to fend for themselves and they won’t start with Chickasaw County, meaning there could be a slight extension of the current contract.