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East Texas Medical Center Regional Healthcare System will merge its two ambulance services – East Texas Medical Center EMS and Paramedics Plus – and spin the division off as a separate entity.

This comes as the embattled Paramedics Plus is seeking to have a civil lawsuit thrown out of court. The lawsuit claims Paramedics Plus executives and Oklahoma’s Emergency Medical Services Authority engaged in a $20 million kickback scheme. The suit was brought by a whistleblower, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas joined it in January.

“The United States alleges the defendants created a slush fund controlled by ETMC and Paramedics Plus that was used to pay over $20 million in kickbacks,” the Department of Justice said in a news release.

But last week, Paramedics Plus and EMSA Executive Director Stephen Williamson asked a judge to dismiss the suit, saying there was never a kickback scheme, only a “profit cap” model.

“The profit cap encourages competition and ensures that Oklahoma taxpayers enjoy the benefits from the efficiencies achieved by EMSA and its public utility model,” EMSA states in its request for dismissal. “The profit cap was merely a cost-savings agreement that limited the total amount of money that EMSA owed to Paramedics Plus based upon Paramedics Plus’s revenue and profit.”

Paramedics Plus contracted with EMSA to provide the ambulance service from 1998 to 2013.

On Thursday, ETMC officials announced the merger of EMS and Paramedics Plus in an internal memo.

“Over the past 50 years, ETMC EMS has evolved from a one-county system to a regional network of emergency care,” the memo read. “Since the creation of our sister company, Paramedics Plus two decades ago, ETMC now extends care into states across our nation.”

In a statement released by ETMC on Friday, ETMC Chief Operating Officer Ron Schwartz explained the newly merged division will be spun off.

“We also believe that it is time for our new consolidated ambulance service division (which will be known as Paramedics Plus) to function as its own entity,” Schwartz said. “This will foster a singular focus on the demands of providing outstanding emergency medical services in our region and beyond.”

Schwartz described the changes as “very positive.”

“We are confident this new direction will create improved patient care and enhanced employee satisfaction for our team, including more professional opportunities for development,” he said. “At this point, we anticipate no change in our workforce or our management structure.”