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Committee recommends hardship waiver for ambulance fees; identifies small set of accounts past six‑year collection limit
Summary
Nicole Marie presented an update on ambulance receivables and proposed a hardship‑waiver policy modeled on Madison and McFarland; staff identified about 45 accounts older than the six‑year statutory collection limit totaling roughly $9,999 eligible for write‑off and recommended updates to the revenue collection policy.
The committee recommended forwarding an updated revenue collection and ambulance‑fee hardship waiver policy to council after staff identified a small group of old accounts that exceed Wisconsin’s six‑year collection window.
Nicole Marie told the committee the city’s review of receivables found about 45 patient accounts that are older than six years and that together are “just under $10,000,” which she said would be eligible for write‑off under the revised policy. She described the proposed hardship waiver as modeled on programs used by the city of Madison and the village of McFarland and said the committee packet included proposed income limits set at 200% of federal poverty guidelines adjusted for family size.
Committee members clarified collection practices and billing. Staff said EMSMC now handles billing and collections (having taken over in April 2024 from Three Rivers Billing) and noted that longer delays in collection reduce recoverability. A staff representative reported that EMSMC recorded nearly $152,000 in write‑offs in the most recent month under its internal processes.
When a committee member asked whether the city was about to write off $561,000, staff corrected that only the subset of accounts older than six years (about $9,999) are eligible for statutory write‑off; the remainder of outstanding receivables will be addressed through updated collection steps, outreach letters, hardship screening and, where appropriate, state debt collection.
The committee voted to recommend the revenue policy update and the ambulance hardship waiver to council for adoption. Staff also said they will send outreach letters to accounts that are still contactable and finalize guidance about residency status and hardship criteria before the council vote.
Why it matters: Updating the policy creates a formal process to screen low‑income patients for relief, clarifies when old ambulance debts should be written off because of statutory limits, and restarts more active collection for more recent accounts.
