The San Diego City Council will consider several updates on Monday to its contract with ambulance company Falck, including an official agreement with the company it replaced.
The council will vote on a contract between the City of San Diego and American Medical Response (AMR). AMR was the city’s ambulance provider before Falck won the contract and took over services in November 2021.
Under the Alliance Model, Falck will remain the primary provider with AMR supplementing hours to increase Advanced Life Support (ALS) hours. According to the staff report, AMR is the only private ambulance company besides Falck with capabilities to serve the city’s system demands.
Prior to this proposal, Falck regularly fell short of the hours that it promised to the city under its initial contract.
Team 10 has reported since early 2022, ALS hours provided by the company consistently did not meet the 900 daily unit hours that was required.
Late last year, Fire Chief Colin Stowell said that he felt “frustration and disappointment”when it came to failures of Falck in its contract with the city.
In addition to the contract updates with AMR, the agenda also includes approving a resolution that would establish patient charges to be collected by the City. According to the staff report posted on the council agenda, patients charges will be “charged and collected by the City for emergency ground ambulance transport beginning in Fiscal Year 2024.” There would be a 7% increase to patient charges for Fiscal Year 2025.
The items will be heard in both the morning and afternoon Monday sessions.
