City collecting on ambulance back bills

The city of Grand Coulee has collected $47,900 in ambulance billings for 2011, the city council was advised last Tuesday night by Fire Chief Rick Paris.

That sum represents about 26 percent of all billings for 2011.

Statistics provided the council show that there is still $133,059 pending and an additional $4,710 has been disallowed.

An additional $35,000 is owed by private parties, the report showed, putting the total accounts receivable not yet paid for 2011, at $165,924.

The city hadn’t made ambulance billings since July, 2009, until Paris worked out third party billing arrangements late last year.

It had been estimated that the city has lost $100,000, because billings were not kept up with earlier.

Paris told the council that none of the Medicaid or Medicare billings have been paid, pending re-licensing by the city. He said the re-licensing application is complete and awaits a visit by government officials before billings will be paid.

City Clerk Carol Boyce said last week that the billing company is keeping up with current billings while going back to try to recover aged bills.

She said it wasn’t known whether the billing company could go back beyond 2011, since insurance companies refuse to honor billings that are over 12 months old.