As the end of the year inches closer, Fort Worth is making steady progress on its plan to dissolve longtime EMS provider MedStar.
In a MedStar board meeting Oct. 23, Assistant City Manager Valerie Washington announced nine area cities have submitted agreements to end the current MedStar structure and instead rely on a forthcoming EMS division within the Fort Worth Fire Department.
MedStar was created through an interlocal agreement back in 1986, after poor performances from private EMS providers across Tarrant County. But MedStar itself came under increasing scrutiny over the last few years, fielding criticism from both the local fire union and council members for its emergency response times and budget woes.
In May, Fort Worth City Council unanimously approved a plan to establish the city’s own fire-based EMS and begin the process of dissolving MedStar. That’s where the city-by-city agreements come into play — in order to fully dissolve the entity, Fort Worth negotiated with the other cities currently receiving MedStar services through the interlocal agreement.
Each individual agreement announces that city’s intention to enter a new interlocal agreement with Fort Worth. The rate they pay for EMS services will depend on how much time Fort Worth EMS workers spend responding to calls in the city’s jurisdiction.
Haslet, for example, projected an annual cost of $51,969. Haltom City, the second largest city behind Fort Worth that is entering the interlocal agreement, estimated paying $500,000 next fiscal year.
Fort Worth is finalizing agreements with four other cities that have traditionally been served by MedStar, Washington said.
Some cities previously expressed concerns over how the transition to a fire-based EMS system would impact their financial outlook; member cities have not subsidized MedStar since the early 2010s. That means payments to Fort Worth will represent a new cost in their budgets. Fort Worth staff have emphasized that they’re committed to reaching fair, beneficial agreements.
City leadership anticipates all of the agreements will be submitted by November, at which point Fort Worth will submit its own agreement and replace MedStar’s current governance structure.
Frank Gresh, MedStar’s interim CEO, said its existing board will be dissolved, and governance will instead be placed in the hands of Fort Worth city management and City Council members on the emergency services committee. Existing advisory boards, including the Emergency Physicians Advisory Board and the First Responder Advisory Board, will continue to operate.
That governance structure shift doesn’t mean MedStar will immediately cease operations. The regional EMS provider will continue to run ambulances and take emergency medical calls through July 2025, at which point Fort Worth intends to transition to its fire-based EMS system.
The city has set aside $3.5 million in funding for the system in its 2025 budget, accounting for the last three months of that fiscal year. Come September 2025, City Council will make new, increased general fund allocations to the fire-based EMS in its 2026 budget, in addition to fees it collects from the neighboring cities that signed agreements.
In preparation for that transition, MedStar board members also approved spending $6.7 million of the entity’s cash reserves to purchase nine new ambulances, hundreds of motorola portable radios and new mobile data computers. Those assets will transfer over to the incoming fire-based EMS system.
Gresh told board members there is an additional $13 million worth of capital expenses being contemplated before the July transition, which would also be paid for through cash reserves. Those include ambulance remounts, vehicle lease buyouts and computer-aided dispatch transition costs.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.