Article - July 17, 2008 - Wicked Local Marion

Town adopts EMS third party billing

By Ruth Thompson

Insurance companies will now be billed for ambulance runs after town selectmen unanimously last Tuesday approved adopting the Ambulance Service Billing and Collection policy drafted by Town Administrator Paul Dawson.

“People who use the service will not notice one bit of difference,” Dawson said.

The decision comes after months of debate as to whether bringing in a third party billing company would be beneficial to the town.

“It does take some of the burden off the taxpayers,” Selectmen Chairman Jonathan Henry said.

Henry has said his “conservative estimate” for the amount the town could reap was $150,000 based on current “reimbursable runs.”

Coastal Medical Billing of Sutton has been awarded the contract to handle the billing. They will receive a fee of 5 percent of revenue collected under an agreement with the town.

Billing for ambulance runs won’t has not started yet as Dawson said a meeting with the billing company is pending.

“We’ll meet with them to go over the procedures,” he said. “Find out what they need from EMS so that we all understand each other. Then we can establish a start date.”

Dale Jones, first deputy director of the Marion EMS, said EMS personnel would mainly be turning over patient information forms and mileage to the billing company.

“What we’re waiting for now is the training,” he said of the new procedures. “The only difference is we’ll have to add a little more to the run information.Fundamentally it’s just the mileage.”

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