Oklahoma Ambulance Payments for Katrina Late, Small

Apr. 6--Six months after the last Hurricane Katrina evacuees left Camp Gruber, ambulance companies that provided service there will receive federal reimbursement by next week, state officials said Wednesday.

But in many cases, including the largest bills submitted by Muskogee and Tulsa ambulance services, the payback will be smaller than anticipated.

Oklahoma Emergency Management officials notified some agencies Wednesday that $180,519 would be distributed next week to 22 ambulance companies, said Michelann Ooten, OEM spokeswoman.

Nine companies assisting at Camp Gruber are receiving $156,428, while another $24,091 will go to 12 ambulance services that helped prepare a southern Oklahoma camp that ultimately was not used for evacuees.

Muskogee County Emergency Medical Service was notified that it should expect a check next week for $115,246, said Rebecca Smith, an employee who is also president of the Oklahoma Ambulance Association.

That's half of the $230,000 that Muskogee EMS submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency after caring for 1,500 people for a month, she said.

The explanation for the discount is largely a mystery to the service that, on a few hours of notice, prepared the camp for a flood of people.

"A lot was asked of us, and we're not asking for more than we are entitled to," Smith said, noting that her agency figured its claims according to the guidelines FEMA supplied.

She said the agency will file an appeal through FEMA with regard to some of the costs not reimbursed, such as charges per hour and per ambulance.

Smith previously said that despite the constant presence of Muskogee EMS at the camp, FEMA was paying for employees' overtime hours, but not other labor costs.

Ooten said, "Some of the costs were not eligible (through FEMA), and some claims were reduced."

Tulsa's Emergency Medical Service Authority originally submitted a claim for $37,000, but was approved for $8,920 in reimbursement from FEMA, Ooten said.

EMSA had not been notified of the reimbursement approval by Wednesday afternoon, spokeswoman Tina Wells said.

"We're going to have to look at our documentation and see where the differences are before we do anything else," Wells said.

Muskogee EMS personnel performed 55 transports to a hospital in the first 16 hours of evacuees arriving at Camp Gruber, then handled other transports and emergency medical calls for a month.

They initially believed evacuees had been medically screened, but instead many of them were ill after having been on a bus for 24 hours with little or no sanitation.

An occupant of the first bus went into full cardiac arrest and became Gruber's only fatality in that month's time.

Other ambulance services being reimbursed for their service at Camp Gruber include Wagoner EMS, Mayes Emergency Service Trust Authority, Cherokee Nation EMS, Okmulgee EMS, Oologah-Talala EMS, Cushing EMS and Southwest EMS of Arkansas, Ooten said.

Several of the agencies were reimbursed relatively quickly for sending emergency aid -- on contracts -- to Louisiana and Texas following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year.

But repayment for the unusual in-state aid was greatly delayed. Officials accustomed to processing disaster claims following tornadoes found a severe learning curve with the hurricane event.

"We were all learning as we go on this one," Ooten said. "Obviously, we would have hoped this could happen more expeditiously.

"I think there were lessons learned to help if something like this happens again, but certainly we hope this doesn't happen again."

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