New agency can start billing patients who have that coverage

More revenue should be coming in soon to the new Lawrence County Emergency Medical Services as the organization now has its Medicare billing number.

“Within about three weeks, we should start receiving money,” Les Boggs, Lawrence County Commission president, said.

The county received its Medicare number on Thursday. The next step for the EMS is to apply for its Medicaid billing number.

“You can’t apply for Medicaid without your Medicare number,” Boggs said.

Until now the EMS has only been able to bill private insurance carriers, which has brought in about $18,000 in revenue so far. With the Medicare number the county can bill retroactively back to when the EMS began on Jan. 1. Boggs estimates those bills bringing in $200,000.

“The bulk of ours would be Medicare because it is the older population,” he said. “(That figure) is conservative.”

Start-up costs for the EMS, which continues to average 26 runs a day, came from $300,000 the commissioners earmarked in the 2011 budget and $600,000 in short-term revenue anticipation notes issued by the county.

Those notes were purchased by St. Mary’s Medical Center that offered the lowest interest rate of 1 percent. Those notes are due Sept. 1 and will cost the county $6,000 for the use of the money.

So far start-up has cost about $300,000, Boggs said.

The county was forced to start its own EMS after the dissolution of the Southeast Ohio Emergency Medical Services at the end of 2010. SEOEMS had provided emergency service for Lawrence, Athens and Jackson counties until financial difficulties prompted Athens and Jackson to pull out of the district.

Commissioners set a just under $3 million budget for the new EMS with funding coming from revenue generated from runs and a portion of the one-half per cent sales tax.

That portion brings in about $2.3 million each year that is divided among EMS, the sheriff’s office and 911. Commissioners anticipate the EMS run bills will bring in $2.2 million a year.

“That was our goal of per year in billing,” he said. “Unlike SEOEMS, we know every dollar will be accounted for. In SEOEMS we took in $1.7 million. We are keeping track of every single run. At the end of the year we would like to have a $350,000 carryover.”

Additional start-up costs may include the purchase of new ambulances, since the current vehicles have on average 200,000 miles on them. Also since the county has had to take over dispatching duties a dispatcher has been added on the midnight shift.

“It has been a very smooth transition,” Boggs said. “I want to give kudos to Buddy Fry (LCEMS director), Lori Morris who is keeping track of every visit and Lonnie Best (911 director). They are doing an excellent job. The residents of Lawrence County should rest easy. We have a first class EMS system.”