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Okaloosa County BOCC — 2013 meeting #1141 (date undetermined) — Action Item Printout — reading text
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BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA REQUEST
DATE: July 16, 2013
TO: Honorable Chairman and Members of the Board
FROM: Dino J. Villani
SUBJECT: EMS User Fee Resolution 2013
DEPARTMENT: Public Safety
BCC DISTRICT: All
STATEMENT OF ISSUE: Resolution Approving Emergency Medical Services User Fees for
County Ambulance services.
BACKGROUND: EMS is operated through a combination of user fees and ad valorem taxes.
EMS user fees are established by the BCC to include base rates, mileage charges and other
services such as standbys, treatment without transport, and specialty care transports. The last
time EMS user fees were adjusted was in March of 2008. A recent rate comparison has revealed
that our rates have fallen below the average of regional and national EMS fees. Consequently,
EMS has the potential to generate more revenue to offset tax support and still be in line with
prevailing EMS transport fees.
OPTIONS: In discussions with our current EMS billing provider, staff developed three options
that consider how our rates would compare with others along with their resulting revenue
projections:
1) Increasing transport fees to the average, doubling standby fees for special events, and
increasing Treatment Not Transported to $250 would increase the County’s collections by
$370,000 annually.
2) Increasing the transport fees by 30%, doubling standby fees for special events, increasing
mileage to $12 and Treatment Not Transported to $250 would increase the County’s
collections by $445,000 annually
3) Setting the base transport fee for all levels of service at $800, mileage to $15, Treatment Not
Transported to $250, and doubling standby fees for special events would increase the
County’s collections by $900,000 annually
RECOMMENDATIONS: Option 3 provides the best revenue potential because it impacts one
of our higher revenue sources (commercial and self pay) while not producing excessive required
write offs due to established Medicare reimbursement rates. It also simplifies our rate structure
with respect to the current challenging health care reimbursement environment, helps minimize
the effects of coding errors and ensures we are more in line with what other systems are
charging.
RECOMMENDED BY:
APPROVED BY:
Ernie Padgett, County Administrator