After 40 years of service by Kane County, Arizona lawmakers force ambulance service to Fredonia and surrounding areas to halt

UPDATE 7/4/25 - Fredonia Mayor Don Johnson signed a Declaration of Local Emergency this morning that enables Kane County Hospital EMS to respond to Town of Fredonia, Arizona while the declaration is in effect.

At the request of Arizona DPS, Sheriff’s department, and the North Rim National Park Service, Kane County has provided ambulance services for over 40 years. In 1989 when the hospital was formed as a Special Service District, they assumed responsibil­ity for the ambulance operations. In 2022, to get paid the full Arizona payment rate, the hospital filed for what is called a Cer­tificate of Need (CON). The CON is what the State of Arizona is­sues to recognize an ambulance service op­erating in the State of Arizona. The hospital has been working with Noreen Adlin, Deputy Bureau Chief, since she took this posi­tion. After multiple applications, changes to those applications at her request, and filing numerous docu­ments, we received electronic notice that they considered our application withdrawn due to missing infor­mation. Shortly after the electronic notice that our application had been withdrawn, we received a “Notice of Investigation.” This notice states the Page Fire Department filed a complaint against Kane County Ambu­lance for transferring a patient from Banner Health, Page without a CON. Additionally, our application re­ceived a letter of op­position from the Page City Manager.

The Notice of Inves­tigation states that Kane County Ambu­lance was reported for concerns related to “alleged illegal trans­port of patients from Banner Page Hospi­tal.” Additionally, this same notice states that operating in the State of Arizona without a CON is in violation of Arizona State Law.

For 40 years no agen­cy from Arizona has tried to serve Fredonia or surrounding areas. The Page Fire De­partment has a strict rule that they will not travel outside of the City of Page. The only other Northern Arizona ambulance service is in Colorado City, and they have been as responsive as they can with the per­sonnel they have. No one has been willing to cover this particular part of Arizona, and we have been denied the CON and now are being investigated for helping Arizona with ambulance transports.

For Fredonia, Ja­cob Lake, Lees Fer­ry, North Rim of the Grand Canyon and all the areas in between, this means no ground service can be provided from Kane County Ambulance. Ben Arm­strong, Kane County Ambulance Director, and I made phone calls to the investiga­tor Lance Bevins, who seemed shocked that we have been provid­ing services for over 40 years. When we asked what this meant, he said that if you don’t have a CON, it is against the Arizona State law for you to operate in Arizona and you need to stop service until you get the CON. He suggested that we call Noreen Adlin, and we did. Noreen has been the one directing the CON application process for us and is also the individual who denied the CON appli­cation. When we spoke to Noreen, we asked if she realized the impact this would have on the citizens of Fredonia and the surrounding areas. She responded, “I’m aware.”

In our regularly scheduled board meet­ing July 1, 2025, it was determined that because of the ac­tions from the State of Arizona officials and the “Notice of Inves­tigation,” that Kane County Ambulance can no longer come into Arizona to provide am­bulance services. The ambulance can still respond to 911 calls within the State of Utah and the hospital will continue to trans­port any patients who come to the hospital. The hospital will con­tinue to treat any pa­tients who come to the hospital, but we will not be able to provide ambulance services to Arizona.

If you want your voice to be heard, reach out to Noreen Adlin, Deputy Bureau Chief. Her phone number is (602) 463-8076. Her email address is Nor­een.Adlin@azdhs.gov. You can also call your State legislators and let them know what is happening.

As soon as we are allowed to operate in the State of Arizona, we will resume our am­bulance services to our Friends and Neighbors to the South.

Sincerely,

Kurt R. Loveless Chief Executive Officer

Jeff Mosdell Board Chair

Marybeth Kuntz Board Vice Chair