The Town of Bethlehem and Albany County have reworked contracts with providers of emergency medical services in a way officials say could save thousands every year.
The new contracts now allow Albany County to directly bill Medicare when it provides paramedics during emergencies. These paramedics assist ambulances in providing Advanced Life Support services when they respond.
“In the past, we’ve only been able to bill on the Basic Life Support (or transportation) side of the service,” said Town Board Member and Chairman of the District Board of Ambulance Commissioners George Lenhardt. “This elevates the level of bill back. The taxpayers will receive a higher amount back and it will mitigate the cost.”
The town currently contracts with the county to provide ALS services to residents during emergencies. This year’s contract cost the town taxpayers about $766,000. The wording in previous contracts did not allow the county to bill third-party providers of those needing ALS services. Since the insurance companies and other providers can now be billed for this higher level of service, the net cost to the Bethlehem taxpayers will be reduced.
It is still unknown how much could be saved by the town, but officials believe it is in the six-figure range.
“We can’t predict how much money we lost over the last two years, but I can tell you from this day on we have the potential of saving well over $200,000,” said County Executive Dan McCoy. The savings could stretch as high as $300,000, he said.
Town officials and Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple have been working on an agreement to get the contracts signed since former Town Supervisor Sam Messina was in office. In November of 2011, the town was told the costs of providing ALS services through county paramedics would increase by 8 percent for the 2012 budget. It was then decided that changes needed to be made.
Town Board Councilman Kyle Kotary said the savings are huge, especially when the town is facing a potential $1.7 million budget gap in the coming year.
“I think this is great on three levels,” he said. “One, it demonstrates once again the localities, like Bethlehem, working with the county to try to find solutions to our issues. Two, it’s great for the health care service within our community and three, there’s the big savings for the taxpayers.”
The town should be seeing the first of its savings from the contract negotiations starting in three months, but it could be six months before there is enough data to predict how much the town could save annually.
“This Advanced Life Support contract will be a great benefit to the residents of the Town of Bethlehem,” said Tim Leach of Bethlehem Volunteer Ambulance. “We are happy to support this contract and a continued relationship with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office and its employees, who provide top-notch service to our community every day.”
David Scoons, president of Delmar Emergency Medical Services, called the agreement “innovative.”
“The elected officials in our town and county are great friends with the EMS community and true partners in helping us deliver the best possible care in the most effective manner,” he said.
Lenhardt said the Board of Ambulance Commissioners would focus on making sure the stipulations in the contracts are being implemented in a reasonable and uniform fashion.
“Our next goal is to ensure that the highest level of EMS service is provided to every resident in the community,” he said.
