A Mission ambulance company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this summer for the third time in a decade says it once again plans to get its finances straight without any disruption in services.

Skyline EMS filed for bankruptcy in July, reporting more than $2.8 million in debt in a court filing, though that number had grown to more than $4.2 million by August.

It owed most of that money — $3.3 million — to the Internal Revenue Service.

Other significant debts to Skyline’s 14 creditors include $161,000 owed to JRG Funding in New York and $125,000 owed to Forward Financing in Massachusetts.

At the time of the original bankruptcy petition in July, the 15-year-old company employed 98 people and operated 56 vehicles, providing emergency ambulance transportation services to people in Jim Hogg County, Precincts 1 and 3 in Hidalgo County, and the city of Palmhurst as recently as August.

Loss of bookkeeper and IRS troubles

According to court documents, Skyline lost its main bookkeeper before its bankruptcy filing. 

Attorney Antonio Martinez said she died.

“So we have no direct information from the person that kept the books,” he said.

That, according to a status report, led to Skyline accumulating debt by failing to pay the IRS.

Martinez said the bankruptcy hasn’t and won’t lead to a disruption in services.

“There has never been a loss of service to the community. Ever,” he said. “And I think that that’s the ultimate point, is that there has never been a loss of service to the community on contracts in any way, shape or form. The work has always been performed and it continues to be performed.”

Operations and outlook

Skyline says operations in 2025 are expected to generate $607,000 monthly, consistent with 2024’s annual revenue of $7,336,129.

Martinez said that income should allow the ambulance company to survive bankruptcy.

“In a nutshell, the company believes that it has sufficient accounts receivables and ongoing operations to pay its debt, all within a five-year plan. And its intent is to come out of bankruptcy without any debt,” he said.

Part of the bankruptcy, Martinez said, will include instituting safeguards related to record-keeping and data management meant to guard against financially risky behavior.

He says Skyline is a growing company that outgrew some of its old business practices but failed to implement new ones.

“This is a good point to stop, reflect on what needs to change, fix it, and keep going,” Martinez said.

History and context

It isn’t the first time Skyline has filed for bankruptcy.

It has done so at least twice before.

In 2015, the company filed for bankruptcy with $300,000 in debt, saying in court documents that its billing operations had underperformed.

Skyline implemented layoffs to cut costs at the time, according to those documents.

During that bankruptcy, however, an employee filed a fraud complaint with Medicare — Skyline’s main source of revenue — which caused it to withhold funds until Skyline could be cleared of wrongdoing, a document said.

Medicare’s money being withheld prompted Skyline to once again file for bankruptcy late in 2016.

That case was closed in 2018.

Skyline also isn’t the first ambulance company in the area to struggle financially.

Hidalgo County EMS filed for bankruptcy in 2019, planning to stay in business.

Instead, it shut down two years later and sold its equipment to the city of Pharr, which initially hemorrhaged money on its in-house EMS service.

Hidalgo County hired Skyline to provide services in Precincts 1 and 3 in 2022 after Pharr EMS ended its relationship with the county.

Hidalgo County Precinct 3 Chief of Staff Jorge Arcaute said this month that he isn’t anticipating disruptions related to the bankruptcy.

“Our understanding was that it’s kind of a reorganization in finances. But there’s been no interruption in service,” he said.

The president and single shareholder of Skyline is Maria I. Rodriguez, according to court documents, while Rodriguez’s husband, Juan Cordero, acts as the company’s CEO.