Loading...
2000-03-02 SP SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING MARCH 2, 2000 MTG. #13 TOWN BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT Supervisor Dennis Brower Councilman James Martin Councilman Theodore Turner Councilman Daniel Stec Councilman Tim Brewer PRESENT Representatives of the three Volunteer Emergency Squads Discussion held regarding EMS Third Party Billing Questioned raised, can the Town bill residents outside of the municipality for Emergency Services? Town Counsel will be looking into this. Mr. Gosnell-Explained third party billing. . . one pot of money for equipment that everyone pays into..second pot of money .. . dollars collected through insurance's and takes care of the victim... think of the ambulance service as an extension of the ER. The ER services are covered in insurance's so why shouldn't the local EMS take advantage of those monies which they can use to help to off set the rising costs of EMS services. Not looking to take monies out of pocket. .you cannot pick and choose who you want to bill, ..at the time of pickup the ambulance service will get the information on the insurance, that will be electronically billed, if there is no information given the company will send out a statement with a letter requesting the insurance information ... if no information is received that is a write off. . . nothing happens after that. If an individual has no insurance they still receive a statement if they have a hardship they are asked to submit a letter as such and submit the bill back to us. . . spoke about Medicare. . . will take care of 80% the remainder must be billed to the individual, that portion can be billed to a secondary Insurance... Supervisor Brower-Questioned the percentage of Medicare recipients in this area.. Mr. Gosnell-Approximately 30% Medicaid is low... private insurance 40% Supervisor Brower-Spoke to the Board regarding Medicare, a portion is paid by the County and as such could potentially raise the county taxes. . . Unknown-Noted main concern of the board is that the residents are being double charged, as a Town Taxpayer if Empire picks me up the average charge is $425.00 if it is life threatening the bill could be a much as $800.00. Noted average taxpayer is now paying $30.00 in taxes..noted with soft billing the insurance will be the one that is paying the bill. . . Councilman Martin-From a revenue generating standpoint it sounds like a good idea.. . questioned how this is handled, the billing administration? Private contractor on behalf of all the squads... Questioned the effect on the tax rate. Mr. Gosnell-We have found where there is an EMS tax base one of two things happens: 1. As time progresses it holds the taxes where they are without cost of living raises... or 2. Reduce the taxes. Councilman Martin-Suggested holding the rate and creating a reserve fund for the EMS if possible. Unknown-Stated the need for Monday thm Friday round the clock EMS service..we can no longer do it with volunteers. That would be the use for the funds to put on two ambulance crews. . . Supervisor Brower-If we go with this it will have to do one of two things: 1. Reduce the taxes to our residents, or 2. Reduced charges to the residents for pickup, lower than Empire charges. . . Town Counsel Hafner-Bill for service, as long as we are having taxes and paying the squads, bill for service can only be instituted if the Town Board sets it up, the Town Board has to have policy and how it is set up, they set up the rates and how they are scheduled, they have certain things they you have to do, you have to be able to account for the money because what you are doing, this is treated as Town funds. Discussion held - placing the funds in a reserve for awhile and then decide how to handle the funds. . . see what funds are coming in... Unknown-Questioned what the company charges to administer the program? Mr. Gosnell-It is percentage of the net that is collected. It is on a sliding scale based on a percentage based on the number of runs and the monies that come in. We give projections on the monies that will come in this is the amount that you would pay our company based on the projections... Noted Bay Ridge has entered into an agreement, West has agreed to come in when the board agrees we can have three separate agreements with the squads, the other way is through the Town. Councilman Brewer-One agreement because we have one district in this town. Unknown-Questioned if you would as a town have to hire someone to take on this task? Mr. Gosnell-Reviewed the payments with the board... print outs of runs will be submitted with the checks to the Town with copies to the three squads... Comptroller Hess-This will be fully audited ... Unknown-Noted that the Squads will show on their audits monies generated from their runs... Councilman Martin-Our principal concern is that when the fund is established that it be used as a supplement to your existing operations and services you provide and not ever to be used as a means to cut the tax rate. Projections are three hundred and sixty thousand town wide, on low side. . . Supervisor Brower-I see it as stabilizing the tax rate. Councilman Martin-For a long period of time you are going to be stabilizing the rate. Unknown-Suggested a longer contract, obligating future boards... Councilman Martin-Short term going to paid day time staff.. Unknown-The Squads need to be reassured that if they need money and they know that they have generated monies through runs they can get the dollars needed? Councilman Brewer-I do not have a problem with that at all, we do not want a relationship where the one that generates the least asks for the most and the other companies object. . . Unknown-Need an agreement within the next year in black and white regarding the use of the dollars. Councilman Brewer-Create a Board of Directors for EMS District... Councilman Brower-We also need a reserve fund... Unknown-Noted that when this was first brought up it was with the assumption that the dollars would be held by the companies not the Town, this will have to be brought back before the Company, we wanted to see the profit for ourselves. . . we are going to have to do a lot of selling that we will be doing the work and it will go into a pot..they might not be so anxious to do third party billing... Councilman Martin-Since we will have an accounting of where the runs were from.. when the money comes to the Town why couldn't we have three sub accounts and within that we account for each individuals squads dollars? West Glens Falls have access to W.G.F. money etc. Councilman Stec-Spoke on the pot of money, there is a way to know who has what rights to the pot... want to set the general rilles on how this will work. Councilman Turner-All companies will have to agree, after that requested that they come back to the Board. Unknown-Questioned if the present staff at the Town can handle the extra paper work. Comptroller Hess- I would imagine for a two year period we can absorb this. . . Unknown-Will this change our accounting system? Comptroller Hess-You should not have to change your way ... Board requested that after the companies meet to contact the Supervisor to set up another meeting with the Town Board. Respectfully submitted, Miss Darleen M. Dougher