EMS company, Texas Vital Care parts ways with the City of Howe
Howe #Howe
HOWE, Texas (KXII) – Over 3,600 residents of Howe, Texas will lose their only ambulance January 28th.
Texas Vital Care is pulling out.
The company said it’s because they failed to reach a contract agreement with the city, who hasn’t paid them in nearly four months.
In a letter to the city, TVC’s director also said they’re restructuring amid financial troubles.
David Groom is one of several TVC employees let go on January 16th.
He said the company hasn’t been following contracts in place with other service areas including Bells and parts of Denison.
“They are supposed to have ambulances stationed for 24 hours in those areas, but they were constantly pulling them,” Groom said. “Sometimes we would absolutely have zero ambulances in those areas to cover any 9-1-1 calls, so then that would cause for longer wait times when we had to call for mutual aid from other companies to come cover our 911 areas.”
Another former employee said financial problems are nothing new at TVC.
“Texas Vital Care was already going bankrupt at that point, they were having to pull loans to make payroll at that point,” the former employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
Groom also claimed TVC would also prioritize transfer calls over 9-1-1 emergencies because they make the company more money.
“A lot of times they’re downgrading calls, even the transfers, they downgrade them that should be ALS calls to BLS calls just so they can take them and make money off of them.”
After receiving a tip that the state was investigating TVC, News 12 reached out to Texas Department of State and Health Services.
They say all EMS investigations are confidential and any enforcement action taken is public and will be posted on the DSHS website when it’s final.