I wanted to play as well. This was just posted to Pinecam, so I thought I would pull a Forrest Fellow and copy and paste it to here. I think it is interesting. Does anyone know if this is true? Does someone on the west coast do billing for our local folks?
In the Current Budget filed by Elk Creek Fire, ambulance billings are down $125,000. When the "Friends" were asked about this they blamed it on medicare write offs. In the same budget, it reflects medicare write off's as being flat at 200,000.
In the past year, ambulance billings were moved from an in-house service to being outsourced to an out of state agency ( friend of the Chief). Statically, outside billing agencies have poorer collection percentages than local in-house services. The reality, it is just impossible for the people on the west coast to know "Ms. Smith's" situation and the best way to help her.
Perhaps the district should have advertised and interviewed to fill the vacant billing/ administrative position with a qualified candidate instead of just promoting the part timer brought in to training record input.
But it is to late for that, we can only go forward. Let's go forward with a NO on 4A vote and deliver the message that we want better accountability, integrity and transparency. That we want local money to stay local, and we wont let our homes and wallets held for ransom by Elk Creek Fire.
YES. The ambulance billing was moved from in house to SYSTEM DESIGN BILLING,PO BOX 3510 SILVERDALE, WA 98383-3510, PHONE 360-394-7010, PHYSICAL ADDRESS IS 19265 POWDER HILL PLACE , PAULSBORO, WA 98370 PHONE 800 585- 5242
It's concerning that the position is still paid at Elk Creek. I believe it was stated at the November 2012 BOD meeting that the collection was down 100k from previous years and has been parroted at many meetings but never made public where the billing takes place. I'm dealing now with a bill from ELK CREEK that I got 5 MONTHS after the transport! WHO WAITS 5 MONTHS TO BILL FOR A SERVICE AND CALL THEMSELVES BUSINESSMEN that claim the department is broke ?? I doubt the billing the person at Elk Creek makes half as much as the 125k that was lost due to doing business in WA. Not long ago ANY citizen could take their bill into the office, talk to the chief and billing person to make payments if insurance did not pay in full. you could claim a hardship and with proof get your bill reduced or waived, it was personal and confidential as required by law.
When I called this billing agency they were polite but stated the bill has to be paid in full or sent to collections.
What happened to the Sense of Community in Conifer ? BESIDES most everyone that is transported are locals so they've already paid a fair amount in taxes for the service themselves. Why does this new practice threaten citizen's credit scores and harassing phone calls when ELK CREEK could bring the business home and save 125k a year and protect the locals financial matters when most always agreed to pay what they could in the past.
Ambulance transports went down from 471 in 2011 to 377 in 2012. A 20 % decrease. The department loses 20% billing plus uncollectible billing. see Elk Creek 2012 annual report.
As far as collection goes. The use of an outside billing agency was done to save the district money. Here's 3 independent sources that say outsourcing saves money.
Those numbers on paper look like a UNION SLOW DOWN WHICH IS ILLEGAL. Just because there are fewer transports does not mean fewer people have called for help! Look at the EMS calls for the year vs transports. Why does ELK CREEK have more patient refusals than ever before? The residents in the mountains are known to be a hardy,tough and sometimes stubborn people, they don't call 911 unless they need help! How many residents have been transported by other ambulance services in the Elk Creek District in the last year? While watching the BOD meetings on you tube Elk Creek has more paramedics than ever before to cover second and third due calls which should result in more transports than ever before resulting in more revenue that ever AND most importantly all of the citizens taken care of by the district that is obligated to serve them. If outsourcing the ambulance billing is that profitable then show me the MONEY!
FNP wrote: Ambulance transports went down from 471 in 2011 to 377 in 2012. A 20 % decrease. The department loses 20% billing plus uncollectible billing. see Elk Creek 2012 annual report.
As far as collection goes. The use of an outside billing agency was done to save the district money. Here's 3 independent sources that say outsourcing saves money.
377 !?!? That does not seem like enough to maintain a paid crew. The Friends have shown us a few things but nothing on this. Perhaps it is time to let the volunteers do what they do... VOLUNTEER!
Our Friends to the West are using furlough days and other cost saving measures, Elk Creek gave big raises
(according to the message boards) The processes at that place are so confusing.
Here are some questions I would like answered. Do the paid folks help with daytime office work? Do they do the fire inspections for the local businesses? Do they do billing prep or collection calls? I just wonder if we are getting the best bang for our buck. If they are only on ambulance transports for a couple hours a day ( on average) What do they do with the rest of the time?
I am not interested in giving a 50% raise for yahoos to sit around eating chia seed and creating new crossfit routines.
According to the BOD videos it was stated that the paid crews and volunteers could do fire inspections but the fire inspector of another district was hired to do them. The paid paramedics at one time did the billing for each other so it would be unbiased, then elk creed hired a billing person and a few years ago it was determined to bill at a flat rate meaning every bill was the same. This made it hard for medicare to argue rates, charges and increased revenue. This also saved time instead of trying to bill itemized supplies that can be used for various types of calls. So billing should take no longer than 30 minutes per transport. DO THE MATH. It is known that hand written letters are opened more often and collections increased but i don't think that service comes from a billing agency.
Also the staff would inspect all the cisterns, flush them and make sure they are logged in the map books. In the high timber times article November 14, 2012 the budget will be cut to repair the cisterns and hydrants. Meaning the only place to fill firetrucks are at pressured hydrants which are few and far apart. They own a water supply vehicle that can set up at cisterns,ponds and streams and rapidly move large amounts of water to refill tenders BUT IT'S FOR SALE ! In the case of the Molly Drive house fire, tenders went to the whole way to Kings Valley to refill, passing several ponds and cisterns. I wonder why they did not stop at the monster cistern at the fire house at the Richmond Hill station 1 ?? Word on the street it was EMPTY. If it was full why did'nt they use it.It was repaired and functioning and used for training just before the fire. But I did not hear that in the chief's report. But UNION ONLY STAFF GOT 9% RAISES.
AGREED! But the leadership does not work for the tax payers! The chief is going to shut down stations and not fix trucks if they break but give pay raises! The BOD president stated a few years ago that he ran for office for the employees(union). Isn't their elected job to be the keepers of the purse for the tax payer ? Their actions say it all !
