AG 2002 09 16 (Regular) - Laserfiche WebLink

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Cabarms County Public Safety Attn: Mike Downs, Director Post Office Box 707 Concord, NC 28026-0707 August 26, 2002 Via E-mail follow up via US Postal Service Dear Sir: As you are aware Harrisburg Fire and Rescue has been operating under a franchise agreement with Cabarrus County for non-emergency transportation. We provide this service utilizing two Advanced Life Support equipped ambulances that also serve as back up to the County EMS System. We began this venture a little over 15 months ago with data that was provided by other agencies including but not limited to: Medicare/Medicaid, Cabarrus County EMS, Medic, and Specialized Transport. With this data in hand we put together models to present to our Board of Directors to get a feel for whether this was a business we wanted to pursue. Based on this information, we made the decision to proceed. Over the past 15 months Harrisburg Fire Rescue with cooperation from Cabarrus County EMS, Northeast Medical Center, all local extended healthcare providers and James Sasser from the Counties Planning Department have implemented a transport coalition to improve the total operations of the Counties non- emergency transport system. With a little over 15 months of our own in-house data the models look a lot different. The bottom line is we are losing money every time we respond to a request for a non-emergency transport. Our fixed costs at this point are $145.59 and our average collection is $101.50 with an over 50% collection rate. This collection rate compares favorably to other EMS agencies, including Cabarms County EMS. As you can see $44.09 is lost on every non-emergency transport. We are always looking in-house to determine what steps or actions are needed to make improvements on collections. But, with 15 months worth of data and a collection rate comparable to other EMS agencies, we find it hard to see these numbers changing. Medicare has put into place a new fee schedule that will surely help all EMS agencies. But this plan is implemented over a five-year period. We also see the call load and our costs increasing, but the call load would have to increase significantly to help our bottom line. Our non-emergency budget is more than in line with comparable EMS systems as far as salaries and benefits are concerned. We know we run a very lean operation. EXCELLENCE "The result of caring more than others think is wise; risking more than others thinks is safe, Dreaming more than others think is practical and expecting more than others think is possible"