BAY COUNTY, Fla. — Bay County EMS has been losing money since taking over the ambulance center, and is attempting to shorten the time it takes to collect patient payments.
The move 14 months ago, to take over the ambulance service from Bay Medical Center has been more expected than was anticipated, reported WJHG.
County commissioners say the increased expense is due to patients not paying their bills quickly enough and unanticipated expenses.
“Some of the things we didn’t expect. We had to buy almost an entire completely new used fleet of vehicles,” said Bay County Commissioner Guy Tunnell.
The county ambulance service has lost almost $2 million in the fiscal year since beginning operations. The loss in the first two months of 2015 is $454,000, and an additional loss $740,000 is projected for this year. But it does look like the losses are decreasing.
The county believes the solution is to address the issue of collecting unpaid payments, and commissioners voted to decrease the delinquent payment window from 180 days to 120 days.
“There’s just a litany of things that can delay payments and we have a very high call volume,” said Mark Bowen, Bay County Chief of Emergency Services.
Bowen told commissioners that paramedics are trained to try and get insurance information from patients, but in many instances it’s not possible. Commissioner Tunnell doesn’t think it should be the paramedic’s job.
“I can’t in good conscience ask our ambulance EMTs to tell somebody right on their gurneys, hey sign this bill for me or this credit card receipt. I just have a problem with that,” said Tunnell.