Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Ambulance Billing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Rusk County seeks ambulance billing data after vendor stops responding
Summary
Officials told the finance committee that the county's ambulance-billing records are held by multiple vendors and that Expert Billing has ceased operations or stopped responding; county staff cannot reconcile 2023 payments and estimate potential revenue at roughly $180,000 pending data recovery.
County staff updated the finance committee on an ongoing effort to recover ambulance-billing records after the private vendor Expert Billing ceased operations or stopped responding. Staff reported that ambulance data appear to be stored across two companies and that the county has received some November 2022 records but had not received 2023 records needed to reconcile payments and customer accounts.
Finance staff said the county cannot currently match some customer payments to accounts because Expert Billing had remitted payments to the county through the vendor's process rather than directly posting them to county accounts. Without full transaction-level data from the vendor chain, county books show some accounts as unpaid even though money may have been collected and remitted to Expert Billing. County staff estimated potential unresolved revenue in the ballpark of $180,000, but said that number would need verification once data are recovered.
Staff said they had attempted to contact the person at Expert Billing who could sign off on releasing data and had left voicemail and email messages with no response. Finance staff said they are pursuing alternate routes: directly contacting the two vendors that hold data and asking whether those vendors will accept a different form of authorization now that Expert Billing is no longer available. County staff said they will return to the committee next month with an update and that they are examining whether legal options or collection from individuals associated with the former vendor may be necessary.
Tom Hall, identified at the meeting as an ambulance director, was named as a staff contact for further work on this matter. The committee discussed possible next steps including a closed session with legal counsel if warranted.
