Schoharie County will begin to charge for certain ambulance calls to help fund another EMS responder.
County Supervisors Friday afternoon agreed to contract with a firm to begin billing insurance companies for calls that require the response of one of the county EMS personnel for advanced life support.
Mark Shantilly of the Certified Ambulance Group of Wethersfield, Connecticut, said that a “soft billing” technique will be used. He said that Medicaid and Medicare services as well as private insurance agencies will be billed but not individuals, unless the county decides to change that policy.
The funds raised, estimated by the representative at about $196,000 a year, will go toward a new EMS responder along with a new vehicle and equipment.
Patients will not be charged for all ambulance calls, county officials said.
It will be up to the members of the ambulance and rescue squads in the county to decide whether to charge for ALS calls and the more routine basic life support (BLS) calls, said William Averill, the coordinator of the county’s emergency medical service office.
He said that only one service, in Richmondville, currently charges for calls.
Rescue squads that are part of a fire department cannot, by law, charge, the representative said, though this may soon change. The county will be able to charge for those units if the bills are separated out.
The representative said it will take three to six months to get the proper Medicaid and Medicare numbers to begin billing though the county could begin billing private insurance companies sooner and may go back to January 1 for retroactive billing.
The county, he said, should start to see a steady flow of income in about three to six months.
The company charges six percent and expects a payment rate of about 73 percent.
The representative said he would talk to senior groups and others about the new policy.
He said it is important to note that there will be no “out of pocket expense” to patients.
In addition to paying for another EMS person and related equipment and a vehicle, the funds will also help alleviate some of the tax burden, officials said.
Larry Phillips, Seward supervisor, said it would also be a good way to prepare for the future as squads may be able to give “stipends” to those who respond to calls.
Mr. Averill said after the vote that ambulance squad members are professionals and should not have to spend their time asking for donations from motorists.
“They need all the support they can get,” he said.
In addition to donations from coin drops, most squads in the county also depend on private donations and some get funds from towns and villages.
Mr. Averill said that the volunteer base for squads is shrinking and it is getting increasingly harder to get enough volunteers to respond to calls.
Officials said there were about 1,200 EMS calls last year and the total could be 1,400 to 1,600 this year.
Mr. Averill noted that the types of calls covered in the billing will be those that require county EMS response for serious cases such as some car accidents, heart attacks and other “high level” cases.
Supervisors initially defeated a motion to hire another EMS worker Friday but later approved the measure after agreeing to sign on with Certified Ambulance Group to begin the billing process.
“It’s time to move it along,” Mr. Phillips said.