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Fire chief reports EMS workload, proposes ending resident soft-billing and pursuing nonresident collections
Summary
Fire Chief Lawson told council the city logged 415 EMS runs and 58 fire incidents Apr—Jun and described a proposal to stop sending soft bills to residents while pursuing nonresident balances through collections; staff said a formal proposal and spreadsheet will be prepared for council review.
Chief Lawson told the Mt. Healthy City Council on July 16 that the fire and EMS department logged 415 EMS runs and 58 fire incidents for the April—June quarter, of which about 235 resulted in patient transports.
The chief described a possible change to the city's transport-billing practice: rather than continuing soft-billing residents, the city would accept payments from Medicare or private insurance for residents and stop sending subsequent soft bills to those residents, while pursuing outstanding balances for nonresidents through collections. Chief Lawson said he discussed the approach with a billing vendor (MedAccount) and that collection work could involve the Ohio Attorney General's collection services; the vendor would charge 15 percent for that collection service.
Chief Lawson told council that soft-billing last year produced roughly $1,400. He said the department intends to prioritize billing paths that reduce the administrative burden of pursuing small patient balances from residents. Council members asked whether the council would need to approve any change; staff said Scott Solomon could prepare a spreadsheet and a formal proposal for council consideration.
Chief Lawson also reported staffing and certification items: the department ran a certification test with 10 applicants, five of whom were qualified to sit for the test; certification should be complete by the end of the week, and the department expects to hire one firefighter/paramedic in the coming weeks.
Council members followed with operational questions, asking whether roughly half of EMS calls result in transport and whether many recorded "lifts" or "falls" require transport; the chief and council discussed call coding and how some calls are coded as "sick person" when transport is not necessarily required.
What happens next: staff said a formal proposal and spreadsheet (Scott Solomon referenced) will be prepared for council review before any policy change is adopted.
