The California Department of Corrections owes Lassen Ambulance Company about $300,000 for ambulance services the CDC admits it received.

Last week the company won 11 small claims cases in Lassen County Superior Court for a total of almost $30,000.

"We won; no they're not going to pay," said Lassen Ambulance Company owner Brad Reger. "They don't dispute they received the services. They don't dispute they received the bills. They don't even dispute the amount they should pay; they just don't seem to be capable of doing it."

Reger said he filed 30 cases last year and won in November. CDC appealed to Superior Court, "where we won again in January," he said. "The Superior Court said pay up and they haven't."

Reger is in the process of filing 30 more cases asking for payment of ambulance bills ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 each.

Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said it never received the claims and though local institutional representatives attended the hearings, the case was filed against CDC headquarters.

Thornton said the California Attorney General's Office is going to make a motion to vacate the orders and seek a new hearing on the grounds that Reger sent his claims to the wrong address.

“This ambulance company has been paid what the department feels is a fair rate of pay," she said, adding the state legislature passed a law last year requiring the state to pay the Medicare rate of $134 if it has no contract with an ambulance provider.

Thornton admitted the service was provided before the law passed, but that Lassen Ambulance refused to negotiate what CDC considers a fair rate.

"In a lot of cases (Lassen Ambulance charged) more than twice what other companies in the state charge," she said.

Lack of payment from CDC was one of the factors Regen claims that caused Lassen Ambulance to go out of business in 2004.