Administrator Lee Kempf presented the Mid-Mo Ambulance Board of Directors, at its Wednesday, Feb. 11 meeting, with a comparison of Mid-Mo Ambulance billing and another area ambulance district.
The bill of the other district was provided by a district employee who had been required to utilize the services of the other district's ambulance for transport to University Hospital. It was presented to the board with an eye towards demonstrating to the board how much difference there is between the Mid-Mo Ambulance transport billing and billing of other area ambulance districts.
Commenting that the patrons often complain about the high cost of ambulance bills in the district, without realizing how much more they are in some other districts, Kempf compared the rates charged by Mid-Mo to those from Cooper County Ambulance District. Mid-Mo baserate is $387 while Cooper County Ambulance baserate is $1,204.30. Mid-Mo Ambulance charge for a loaded mile is $7.25 compared to the Cooper County Ambulance charge of $24.
He also presented a billing report from the last fiscal year which broke down amounts billed, collected, written off for contractural allowances and bad debt by payer. The report indicated that nearly 60 percent of the district's patients transported are Medicare or Medicaid recipients. A little more than 20 percent are uninsured self-pay, responsible for the majority of bad debt for the district. Only 20 percent are commercial, or privately insured patients.
Kempf said that "if Mid-Mo charged the higher charges like other surrounding services do, the district's bad debt and contractural allowances would increase dramatically. Less than 20 percent of bills would have the potential to be paid in full at those higher rates by a commercial or private health insurance company, but private self-pay bills would increase dramatically and thus, be uncollectible bad debt."
Kempf made the point that the charges by Mid-Mo Ambulance District are based on the allowed payments by Medicare. That is because of the realistic collection rate on the majority of the citizens within the district.
Kempf said that the ambulance district is a good steward of its money and provides a more affordable service to its patrons by doing so.
Kempf presented the board with a revised extended medical leave policy, as well as the current policy for comparison. The policy was approved by the board, with a few changes concerning COBRA insurance coverage resulting from the discussion. A few more changes are to be made to the policy, after which it will be brought to the board for approval. The extended leave policy will cover an employee for an additional eight weeks of unpaid leave, past the normal 12 weeks allowed for FMLA, if needed and if the employee "has a reasonable expectation of being able to return to work." An employee unable to return to full duty after the extended leave will be terminated.
Kempf reported to the board that it is hoped that the new patient reporting programs purchased from Image Trend will be ready to go by March 1. After he explained an additional geo-mapping add-on to the program, which would generate useful reports, the board approved the $2,500 for the purchase.
In other business, the January treasurer's report balance on hand was $395,561.66. Run statistics were: Tipton - 43 calls with 21 transports; California - 72 calls, 48 transports; Versailles - 141 calls, 95 transports; and Barnett - 33 calls, 21 transports. District wide, there were 289 calls with 185 transports for a transport rate of 76.8 percent on patient contact calls.
The February meeting was held at the Tipton district office. The next regular meeting is set for March 11, also at the Tipton district office.