ARCHBOLD WEATHER

EMS Billing Issues Resolved

More Than $800,000 Recovered



It was just shy of a year ago that word broke that there were big problems in the Fulton County emergency medical service billing.

The situation was so bad, the Fulton County Commissioners fired Bob Hartman, Fulton County emergency medical service emergency management agency director.

Bills for emergency and nonemergency ambulance calls had never been submitted. Paperwork wasn’t completely filled out, or the wrong forms were used.

In other words, things were a mess.

Kolb

Enter Brett Kolb.

Kolb, Wauseon, has a history of public service. A former Clinton Township trustee and Wauseon firefighter, he was appointed to the Fulton County Board of Developmental Disabilities when there were problems in that program.

He later was named director of the county Board of Elections, and Fulton Co. became one of the few counties in Ohio to make electronic voting machines work.

The commissioners named Kolb the new Emergency Services Director on Sept. 11, 2008.

At one point, it was estimated there was almost $800,000 in unpaid bills.

Kolb, the EMS office staff, and Life Star, a Toledo firm that handles medical billing, have recovered more than $800,000 in unpaid bills that went back three years.

About a year ago, the balance in the county EMS fund stood at around $2.6 million. It costs about $2 million a year to operate the system.

When asked about the fund balance today, Kolb said it’s in great shape. As of April 30, 2009, there was $4,150,662.54 on hand.

Fulton County residents pay two mills on their property taxes for the emergency medical service. First passed in 2002, that levy is set to expire in 2011.

The stated goal of the fund is to provide one year of emergency medical service without the levy.

Could the millage be “rolled back” to reduce the burden on Fulton County taxpayers?

“That’s a decision for the commissioners,” Kolb said.

Cleaning Up

Up until 2006, Life Star had been handling all the billing for Fulton County ambulance services, both emergency and nonemergency transfers.

At that time, Hartman sold the commissioners on the idea that Fulton County could begin handling the billing in-house, saving the fee the county was paying to Life Star.

When the EMS billing problems came to light in June 2008, Life Star was again hired to go through the bills.

But Life Star would only work with the emergency runs- calls for basic life support (ambulances staffed by emergency medical technicians) and advanced life support (ambulances with paramedics).

The non-emergency transfers were handled locally, but Kolb said he didn’t attempt to collect for some runs because there wasn’t enough information in the incomplete paperwork to even submit a bill.

In the meantime, Kolb and Jodi Tuckerman, office administrator, went to conferences to learn EMS billing, and a consultant was brought in to bring the computer systems up to date.

Today, Kolb said Life Star is almost completed in its work.

“It isn’t 100%, but it’s better than 90%. There’s not a lot out there,” he said.

In December, Kolb and Tuckerman were given a stack of 10 bills to process, just as a test. The bills went through without problems.

Taking Over

The Fulton County Emergency Medical Service-Emergency Management Agency took over billing for EMS runs Jan. 1.

Kolb said from Jan. 1 to June 25, they have sent out bills for close to $570,000.

Thank Out of that, the county collects about 65%, because federal Medicare and Medicaid systems and private insurers won’t pay bills fully.

Also, under the county EMS system, if a Fulton County resident is transported by an ambulance, the EMS system will accept whatever the insurance pays and not charge the patient the co-pay.

In other words, in return for paying the two-mill property tax, the EMS system writes off an in-county patient’s share.

So it took a year, but the county EMS billing system has been turned around, and there are two years worth of operating funds in the bank.

“It took us a while,” Kolb said.

“I told the commissioners when I took this job, it was not going to happen overnight.

“It was a learning process, but it rolled fairly well, and we were ready to take on the entire billing Jan. 1,” he said.


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