REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
AND RECORD OF ACTION
March 1, 2022
FROM
WILLIAM L. GILBERT, Director, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center
SUBJECT
Title
Amendment to Agreement with CalStar Air Medical Services LLC for Patient Transfer Call Center Services
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Approve Amendment No. 1 to Agreement No. 19-200 with CalStar Air Medical Services LLC, for patient transfer call center services, increasing the total not-to-exceed amount by $1,704,000, from $1,229,000 to $2,933,000, and extending the term by two years, for a total contract period of April 2, 2019 through April 30, 2024.
(Presenter: William L. Gilbert, Director, 580-6150)
Body
COUNTY AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER GOALS & OBJECTIVES
Operate in a Fiscally-Responsible and Business-Like Manner.
Provide for the Safety, Health and Social Service Needs of County Residents.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Approval of the recommendation will not result in the use of Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). The additional cost of $1,704,000 is funded by State Medi-Cal, Federal Medicare, private insurances, and other departmental revenue. Funding sources may change in the future pending any legislative activity related to the repeal and/or replacement of the Affordable Care Act. Sufficient appropriation and revenue are included in the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) 2021-22 budget and will be included in future recommended budgets.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The amendment will allow ARMC to continue to provide patient air ambulance transfer and transfer coordination services. CalStar’s All Access Transfer Center (CalStar) is a one-call patient transfer call center that does not pass calls through to another source. As a “one-call transfer center,” CalStar finds the physician for the patient, the bed for the patient, connects physicians providing care for the patient, arranges patient transport via ground or air and tracks the patient through arrival at their destination. In addition, mental health placement is coordinated with County Mental Health facilities. Use of CalStar streamlines the transfer process for patients that need to be admitted to ARMC from other surrounding hospitals or transferred out to another hospital.
On April 2, 2019 (Item No. 9), the Board of Supervisors approved Agreement No. 19-200 with CalStar Air Medical Services, LLC in the amount of $1,229,000 for the period of April 2, 2019 through April 1, 2022, for one-call patient transfer call center services at ARMC. This contract approval included three tiers of transfer rates with the initial contract amount set according to the first tier rates ($34,000 per month for zero to 350 transfer requests per month). Since the time that the agreement was approved, ARMC has consistently utilized the vendor’s service at the third tier volume, and thus, ARMC is being billed third tier rates ($48,000 per month for 426 to 500 requests per month).
ARMC recommends approval of this amendment to provide for the safety and health needs of County residents by expediting patient transfer referrals to meet patient needs.
PROCUREMENT
Purchasing continues to support this non-competitive procurement based on sole source service as CalStar is the only vendor in the region that provides one-call patient transfer call center services.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Charles Phan, Deputy County Counsel, 387-5455) on January 31, 2022; Purchasing Department (Ariel Gill, Buyer, 777-0722) on February 4, 2022; ARMC Finance (Chen Wu, Finance and Budget Officer, 580-3165) on February 7, 2022; and County Finance and Administration (Diana Atkeson, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on February 14, 2022.