The Harrisonville Board of Aldermen on Monday approved a resolution allowing the fire department to write off $971,861.60 in designated uncollectible ambulance and EMS accounts.

Chief Sullivan, speaking for the Harrisonville Fire Department, told the board the accounts include older bills from 2016–2018 and about 31 accounts billed to nursing homes that the city no longer expects to collect. "This is the bad debt that the fire department incurs ... these are the bills that have went to collections and you can no longer collect it either through death or they just decided not to pay," Chief Sullivan said.

The resolution, introduced as Council Bill 27 and recorded as Resolution 2025-10, passed after a motion from Alderman Fouch with a second from Alderman Turner. The roll call showed aye votes from Fouch, Turner, Milner, Franklin, Chaney and Mills; Aldermen Dorhof and Davidson were excused.

Why it matters: Sullivan told the board the city collects roughly 30% under the current billing process and that insurance restrictions and denials for nonemergent transports are worsening collections. "As the insurance companies put more and more restrictions on billing, it gets worse over the years," Sullivan said, and he described insurers sometimes declining to process claims until timely-filing windows lapse.

What the resolution does: The action removes these accounts from the city's balance sheet as uncollectible so auditors can clean up receivables; it does not create a new billing policy or change ongoing collection practices. Sullivan said the accounts have already been handled with auditors and with collection agencies.

Board action and next steps: The resolution was approved and recorded as Resolution 2025-10. No additional policy motion to change rates, billing practices or a new fee structure was taken at the meeting.

Details and limits: The write-off covers accounts originating in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and includes roughly 31 nursing-home accounts that were sent to collections. Sullivan said collection agencies generally pursue accounts for about seven years before deeming them uncollectible. The total write-off amount specified by staff was $971,861.60.

Speakers and attribution in this article are limited to those recorded in the meeting transcript and listed below.