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Glacier County authorizes attorney to withdraw appeal on IHS EMS claims after legal review
Summary
After hearing from county counsel that many IHS-related EMS claims are likely time-barred or precluded where Medicaid paid, Glacier County commissioners authorized the county attorney to file a motion withdrawing the county's appeal of those claims.
The Glacier County Board of Commissioners voted March 3 to authorize the county attorney to file a motion withdrawing the county’s appeal of Indian Health Service (IHS)-related EMS claims.
Deputy county attorney David Hagedat told the board many claims date from 2016–2017 and face statute-of-limitations hurdles. He also said federal rules and payment priorities mean Medicaid payments can preclude recovery from IHS for services Medicaid already paid. "A lot of them are from 2016, 2017, and so, you know, standard contract statute of limitations likely apply in a lot of those instances," Hagedat said. He told commissioners that, given the age of many claims and payment rules, continued pursuit was unlikely to be cost-effective.
Commissioner Mitchel summarized the county’s years-long review, saying initial potential recoveries once tallied near $5,000,000 but had dwindled over time as records were reviewed and legal limits applied: "we started, like it they did we started, like, about 5,000,000, and we dwindled down to 1.5, then we dwindled down to 1000000," Mitchel said. He described multiple years of document review, hiring an outside expert and the county’s decision to stop further spending to pursue claims with low recovery prospects.
A caller, Becky Kimmett, asked whether the county had developed a new process to recover IHS payments. Commissioners explained Logan Health now operates EMS in Glacier County and handles claims processing; the county retains responsibility for facility ownership and certain election/notice functions but is no longer directly running EMS billing. After discussion, Mitchel moved and the Chair seconded authorization for the county attorney to file a motion to withdraw the appeal; the board voted aye.
The record shows the board approved the authorization and instructed the county attorney to proceed with filing the withdrawal motion. Commissioners thanked David Hagedat and county staff for their work on the matter.
