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Jefferson County board approves dissolution of regional ambulance agreement after billing, staffing updates
Summary
The board approved dissolving the county's 28E regional ambulance agreement and heard ambulance director updates on staffing shortages, plans to pursue field troponin testing, and a move toward bringing billing in‑house after low reimbursement rates with an outside vendor.
The Jefferson County Board of Supervisors on an unanimous voice vote approved a resolution to dissolve the county's 28E intergovernmental ambulance agreement and heard a detailed operations update from the ambulance director.
The ambulance director, identified in the record as Josh, told the board the service currently has two full‑time and one part‑time vacancies and is pursuing state laboratory certification that would allow medics to run point‑of‑care troponin tests in the field. "If we're able to run a simple blood test in the field to determine or help us determine if a patient is in fact having a cardiac event, then we can potentially bypass Jefferson County and go to somewhere ... that has a cap lab," Josh said, adding the change could shorten time to definitive care and reduce unnecessary emergency department transports.
Josh also described problems with an external billing vendor that contributed to low reimbursement rates. He provided month‑level examples, saying March reimbursements were about 37% and February about 22%, and said the county is considering moving billing in‑house to improve collections and appeals. "We decided that that among others that we're probably better by doing it in‑house," he said.
On the 28E dissolution, board members reported that recent accounting showed a negative balance in the joint agency because some partner contributions were not made last year; Julie, who joined the meeting remotely, said there is a negative balance and "we would not be getting any money." The board approved a resolution to dissolve the Jefferson County 28E ambulance service agency and directed staff to follow winding‑up provisions in the agreement.
Board members asked for follow‑up on outstanding financial allocations and escrowed funds before final closure. The board also took a separate step to appoint a board member as a non‑voting, ex officio participant on the ambulance academy advisory board to provide a board liaison, with the appointee serving in a non‑voting capacity.
The board voted to approve the dissolution; members noted further conversations with partners are needed to finalize asset allocation and any outstanding expenses.
