Inspira Health has notified both Middle and Lower townships that the company will not renew its contracts for emergency medical services this year. The townships must find a provider for ambulance and EMT services, an issue the towns thought they had resolved.
Both townships had relied on local EMS and all-volunteer ambulance squads until 2021, when each in turn privatized the service through a contract with Inspira.
At the Middle Township Committee meeting April 8, Mayor Christopher Leusner reminded the public of the reasons why the township felt it had to move away from its all-volunteer squad. He said the squad was down to a bare minimum of trained personnel and was not successful in recruiting new volunteers. “Response time suffered,” the mayor said.
In Lower Township, rescue squad members said that the pandemic had put enormous financial burdens on the unit. New recruits were hard to find, especially with the fear of exposure to the coronavirus. On ambulance calls, fewer ailing individuals were willing to be transported to the hospital, cutting into the major source of insurance funding for the squad.
Lower Township sought bids for services in 2021; Middle followed in 2022. Inspira was the only provider to respond to both townships. In Middle Township, the governing body also kept open a relationship with the volunteer ambulance squad with a financial contribution. The volunteer squad worked out protocols with Inspira for how and when the squad would respond.
While Inspira has made no official statement about why it is not renewing the contracts with the two townships, Leusner said, “They were losing money.” He added that “all the people that the township dealt with at Inspira two years ago are no longer there.” He called the decision a “curveball” thrown late in the township’s 2024 budget process.
The two townships are getting set to test the waters for a new provider with a joint bid process. At its committee meeting, Middle Township passed a joint purchasing resolution, a move Leusner said was intended to see if a larger joint contract could elicit better terms.
Lower Township will be the lead agency in the joint agreement, making it responsible for all compliance with state regulations. The Lower Township Council passed its joint purchasing resolution on April 1.
The joint process is not in any way limiting the ability of each of the townships from pursuing individual contracts. Leusner said he hopes there will be more interest in providing the service on the part of two health systems that have been penetrating the Cape May County market, Atlantic Care and Cooper Health System.
Leusner said that Cooper would be finalizing its merger with Cape Regional Health Center in early May. There has been no official word from either of the potential merger partners on a closing date as specific as what the mayor suggested.
He also told the public at the meeting that the loss of Inspira’s services was not as imminent as it might seem. The company’s contract with Middle ends on June 15, but there will be a 90-day period following that date during which services will continue to be provided by Inspira.
“We are good until after Labor Day, and I am confident we will have a provider in place this year,” the mayor said.
Lower Township Mayor Frank Sippel said at the April 1 council meeting that the township’s contract with Inspira runs through Sept. 16.
Leusner said it is very possible that Inspira will bid to become the provider again under new contract terms. In January 2022 Inspira purchased the Belleplain Emergency Corps. The company now provides EMS services to Dennis Township and Woodbine. The contracts with Middle and Lower townships were seen at the time as an extension of Inspira’s penetration into Cape May County.
Both townships are moving quickly to get the bid process underway. A resolution passed at the Middle meeting stated that the township expects new proposals for emergency medical services to be opened on May 8.
Leusner also said that he expects the local volunteer squad to remain a part of the solution for EMS in the township. “We have an advantage with our volunteer squad that other municipalities may not have,” he said.
An April 10 posting on the Lower Township website also sets May 8 as the date for opening bids to provide emergency medical transport services.
Officials in both townships have had positive comments on the service provided by Inspira. Leusner said Middle Township has had fully staffed ambulance service around the clock under Inspira, something the township could not achieve when it relied on the all-volunteer squad.
Contact the author, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
