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Board approves expanded medical-billing contract and summer transit agreement; trustees press for fee transparency
Summary
The board approved an expanded contract with Medical Billing Technologies (including an 8% recovery fee) and a summer ESY transportation agreement with Fillmore Area Transit; trustees asked for clearer fee accounting and training evidence before expanding reliance on contractor services.
The Santa Paula Unified board approved two vendor agreements the district said will support student services and operations.
District staff recommended and the board approved an agreement with Fillmore Area Transit Corporation to provide routes for the district's extended-school-year (ESY) program. A district representative estimated the contracted routes will serve roughly 150 students across five routes (three elementary, two high school) and said both large and small buses will be used.
On a separate item, staff asked the board to approve an increase to the district's contract with Medical Billing Technologies (MBT) to include the firm's complete fee structure. District presenters said MBT has provided billing software, training and consulting for roughly five years and that reimbursements to the district have grown (the presenter cited roughly $1.1 million in billings recovered last year). The contract includes a flat fee component and an 8% fee on final reimbursements; meeting discussion recorded an increased payment request of $81,000 to include the full fee structure, and a total figure that was read aloud in the discussion.
Trustees asked several questions before approving the MBT increase: they wanted a clear accounting of total fees paid historically and projected under current projections, an inventory of which staff and service providers have received MBT training, and assurance that MBT training extends beyond management-level staff to counselors and service providers who must log services. The presenter said MBT does provide staff training and that the district was working to expand training for counselors and mental-health providers to ensure billing logs and service documentation are audit-ready.
Both contracts were approved by the board in open session; trustees asked staff to provide more detailed fee reporting and a plan for staff training and auditing the billing processes.
The district said next steps include finalizing MBT invoicing details, continuing staff training on billing and submitting the ESY schedule to the vendor so routes can operate for the summer program.
