The lawsuit involving a local ambulance provider and several
area municipalities has been withdrawn from McKean County Court and
is instead being filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western
District of Pennsylvania.

“We have filed this withdrawal for several reasons,” reads a
letter from Carl Hittinger, the attorney representing Priority Care
Ambulance in a suit that had been filed against City of Bradford,
Lewis Run Borough, and the townships of Bradford, Foster, Lafayette
and Corydon, as well as city Fire Chief Bill McCormack.

One of the reasons is that the same issues will be addressed in
federal court that were in the lawsuit in McKean County Court,
“therefore negating the need for this action,” Hittinger
explained.

The other reason given is that resolutions have been reached
with Bradford Township and Lewis Run. The other defendants have
about another week to resolve matters with Priority Care or face
litigation.

Hittinger wrote in a letter to the remaining defendants, “we
will not file the federal action until June 14” to allow
“additional time to attempt to resolve the dispute with our client,
which has been requested by certain defendants.”

“That will be filed in Erie in federal court,” said Brian
Gustafson, owner of Priority Care Ambulance.

Gustafson added that, so far, he believes the following may be
named as defendants in the federal filing: “Foster, Lafayette,
Corydon, the city, Bill McCormack, and Mayor (Michele) Corignani
individually, possibly. I won’t know for sure until (Hittinger)
files it.”

The reason for that is negotiations with municipalities may well
continue until June 14, the day that Hittinger has set for filing
the motions in federal court, Gustafson said.

The issue in question is whether service agreements between the
City of Bradford Fire Department’s ambulance service and the
municipalities are exclusive or not. If the agreements are
interpreted as exclusive, Priority Care is excluded from operating
in that municipality – which they claim is in violation of
antitrust and unfair competition laws.

Hittinger and Gustafson have asked each municipality to define
the agreement and allow Priority Care to operate there as an
emergency and non-emergency provider. They have suggested a
rotating basis for responding to 911 calls – one call would be
answered by the city’s ambulance and one by Priority Care’s; or
that someone could request Priority Care when they call 911.

Currently, Priority Care is operating in Bradford Township and
Lewis Run Borough “with really good results,” Gustafson said.

And Priority Care is doing a membership drive throughout the
area – including in those municipalities involved in the
litigation.

“What we would like to see is when somebody calls 911 they could
have either” Priority Care or the city ambulance, Gustafson said. A
private ambulance service cannot be dispatched by the 911 Center
into a municipality unless there is specific authorization from
that municipality.

With the membership offers comes a letter outlining benefits
that members receive, including transport to hospitals other than
Bradford Regional Medical Center if a patient chooses.