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Cleveland officials investigate EMS billing practices

By Mark Puente
The Plain Dealer Reporter

CLEVELAND — The city of Cleveland rented out paramedics’ services for decades to private events and allowed an EMS official to collect the payments at his suburban home and pay the paramedics from his private checking account.

The city stopped the long-standing policy last year, days after an anonymous letter urged Mayor Frank Jackson and the EMS union to question the practice. A police investigation uncovered no wrongdoing, but the city changed the policy.

“It had been going on for decades,” EMS Commissioner Ed Eckart said Thursday. “This was an opportunity to get it squared away.”

Full story: Police Department’s Intelligence Unit investigated case after letter arrived at City Hall