EMSA's current contractor alleged that a competitor's bid appears to be "a price fixing effort" that could bring scrutiny of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Vic Albert, an attorney for Paramedics Plus who spoke Wednesday to the EMSA board, said the bid by AMR appears to be "grossly underpriced." He said the low bid -- which would save EMSA up to $44 million over Paramedics Plus' bid -- comes at a time when AMR is preparing an initial public offering of stock to raise funds.
Albert said he believes AMR is under bidding the five-year contract in order to help its stock offering. He said if the selection committee knew about the IPO, the process could amount to "a potential SEC violation."
EMSA unanimously approved AMR's bid of $247 million for the five-year contract. Several board members who served on the contract selection committee said they were comfortable with the process and had considered Paramedics Plus' claims during the process.
"It was an intense process," said outgoing board chairwoman Lillian Perryman. "I truly believe the selection committee did an exceptional job of reviewing that material and I still stand by my decision."
EMSA is a government agency that supervises a contractor to provide ambulance service to more than 1 million people in Tulsa, Oklahoma City and surrounding cities.
EMSA's board voted in March to disqualify a third company, Rural/Metro Corp., from bidding.
The nine-member selection committee's report unanimously recommended that EMSA's board approve AMR as the successful bidder, based on a comparison of proposals by the two companies.
The committee report also recommended that the board approve response times in the new contract that are two minutes longer than currently required. The recommended response time for Priority 1 emergency calls is 10 minutes and 59 seconds.
Priority 1 calls, the highest priority, include heart attacks, car accidents resulting in traumatic injury, and other serious medical issues.
Tulsa's city ordinance and EMSA's current contract requires ambulances to respond to those calls in Tulsa within 8 minutes and 59 seconds.
Calls are excluded from the requirement under certain weather conditions and during times of high demand.
The proposed contract would nearly double allowed response times for calls classified as not life threatening and would decrease both types of scheduled patient transport response times by one second.
EMSA CEO Steve Williamson said he has discussed the proposed increase in response times with Mayor Dewey Bartlett, City Councilor Phil Lakin and Clay Bird, the city's economic development director. Lakin and Bird are also on EMSA's board.
Williamson said the longer response times would require a change in city ordinance. Tulsa city councilors would be required to vote on any such change.
Williamson said the response time increase is supported by EMSA's Medical Control Board, which oversees the agency's medical protocols.
Check back for more on this story as it develops.
EMSA
Councilors suggest that it puts additional work on the Fire Department’s first responders.
He said changing the response time requirement would decrease the likelihood of accidents by EMSA crews without compromising patient care.
