AMBULANCE services and other medical transportation providers are an integral part of every community. Many, of course, are owned by municipalities or other governmental entities. Coverage for such services usually is arranged as part of the comprehensive insurance program written for the public entity.

But medical transportation services also are provided by private entrepreneurs. These services can make substantial accounts–and an agent or broker doesn't have to be an expert in public entity insurance to write them. To learn more about this specialty, we recently spoke with Howard Handler, who as the owner of American Agency in Overland Park, Kan., has been a program administrator in this niche for nearly 25 years. While he writes coverage for municipally owned ambulance services, his forte has been underwriting private medical transporters. At the beginning of the year, he sold his business to Thomco, which continues to operate American Agency as a division, with Mr. Handler in charge as senior vice president. Recently we spoke with Mr. Handler about the particulars of the private medical transportation market. Following is an edited transcript of our conversation.

AAB: How would one describe the private medical transportation business?