No franchise shall be required for the following:
(A) Any entity rendering mutual aid assistance in the case of a disaster, major catastrophe, mutual aid or emergency when the resources of the county are insufficient or unable to cope and assistance has been requested;
(B) Any entity operated from a location or headquarters outside of the county, transporting to facilities located within the county, or picking up patients within the county for transportation to locations outside of the county;
(C) Ambulances owned and operated by an agency of the United States government;
(D) EMS providers under contract with county government to provide emergency medical services, or municipal EMS providers, all of which are operating as part of the county EMS system as of the effective date of this chapter, may, with County Commission authorization, conduct non-emergency transport without further franchise approval only under the following conditions: the Emergency Services Director must verify that none of the currently franchised transport providers are operating in that squad's emergency response area, at the requested level of service required for transport by a medical physician. These exceptions will be approved only on a case by case, trip by trip basis with notifications of said approvals forwarded to the Director of Emergency Services, with detailed circumstances; and
(E) Any entity providing ambulance transportation services within the meaning of this chapter that is part of a state-certified hospital-based specialty care transportation program.
(Ord. passed 6-2-2014; Ord. passed 9-10-2018)