By Michelle Merlin
The Record-Eagle
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Elk Rapids EMS wrongly billed patients for transports in an ambulance, a recent review by a Saginaw-based firm found.
Elk Rapids Township Supervisor Bill White said Yeo and Yeo, the firm hired to review the service, found 33 runs that were “inappropriately billed” from January 2013 to October 2014.
“When you have an (Advanced Life Support) ambulance that’s licensed ALS, you have to have a paramedic on that ambulance in order to bill. Sometimes we only had two basic EMTs,” White said.
Elk Rapids EMS, which also serves Milton Township, has been a hot-button issue for over a year, ever since officials considered outsourcing the service to a new company. Some residents worried that a non-local company would be less responsive and would downgrade the service
Township officials voted to have Mobile Medical Response, Inc., an organization that provides EMS to municipalities across the state, take over the service in October. Matt Holtcamp, an MMR employee who came in to run the service, accused former employees of improperly billing patients when the ambulance went out on ALS runs.
The township hired Yeo and Yeo after the meeting, and White recently received a list of who was improperly billed and when. Now township officials will have to review how much is owed to each person, White said. He expects the firm to send him a more comprehensive report in the coming weeks.
Advanced Life Service ambulances have to have a paramedic in order to be a licensed ambulance, Holtcamp said.
Eileen Hedin, the township’s former EMS chief, could not be reached for comment.
Christine Keenan, former administrative assistant for the Elk Rapids service, said former administrators have been kept in the dark.
“Since they won’t let us see any of the paperwork, I have no reaction,” she said of Yeo and Yeo’s findings. “I’m sure they’re looking at it through a misshapen lens.”
Keenan said the transports fall under an exemption to the paramedic requirement, and that the township should be talking to the Northwest Regional Medical Control Authority out of Munson Medical Center and EMS administrators at the state.
Daryl Case, medical control manager, said he’s been in touch with Elk Rapids about the transition to MMR, but not about allegations of inappropriate runs.
Case said it was unlikely the exemption would have applied to the Elk Rapids runs, and that it’s intended to apply when the patient has a specialist who would supersede the paramedic.
“Our physicians, our med control, wouldn’t intend to have an ambulance go against their licensure,” Case said.
White estimated patients were improperly billed just under $20,000, an amount the township will have to repay them. He hopes to have the matter resolved in about two weeks.
MMR also uses Yeo and Yeo, White said. Township officials looked into using other firms for the audit, but no Traverse City firms were able to audit the emergency medical service, and one firm in Grand Rapids did business with one of the township’s trustees, White said.
The township’s EMS service was upgraded to Advanced Life Support almost two years ago. The switch caused a $150,000 budget shortfall and prompted officials to look for new ways to run the service. Township officials agreed to a five-year contract with MMR that will cost taxpayers $225,000 annually.
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©2015 The Record-Eagle (Traverse City, Mich.)