County raises per-mile charge for ambulance service

By Deborah Buckhalter

Published: July 23, 2008

By DEBORAH BUCKHALTER
Floridan Staff Writer

In a split vote Tuesday, Jackson County Commissioners decided to increase the per-mile charge for ambulance service from $8 to $10 a mile.
Commissioners Jeremy Branch and Chuck Lockey voted against the action, with the motion put forward by Willie Spires, seconded by Milton Pittman, and supported by Ed Crutchfield.
The request was presented by Chuck Sawyer of Jackson County Fire-Rescue on behalf of JCFR Chief Tony Wesley.
According to figures submitted by JCFR, Jackson County’s $8-per-mile rate was the lowest in the surrounding area.
Bay County charges $12 per mile, while Washington, Calhoun, Walton and Gadsden counties all charge $10 per mile.
The ‘billable miles’ are those driven from the scene of an incident to a facility for treatment of the ill or injured.
The county does not charge for the miles it takes to get to the scene, Sawyer said.
Increasing the rate for the service could increase income from it, provided those who use it actually pay.
But every month, the county charges off thousands of dollars worth of ambulance bills as bad debt after a certain amount of time has passed without payment.
According to the figures presented by Sawyer, JCFR drives an average of 72,000 billable miles every year.
If the county were to collect on all that at $8 a mile, it would generate $576,000 a year to help defray the rising cost of fuel and other expenses in the department. With the $2 per-mile rate increase, the potential income goes to $720,000 for the same amount of miles, for an overall increase of $144,000.
The subject of bad debt in JCFR was discussed in budget meetings this week, prior to Tuesday’s action on the fees.
In budget year 2006-07, bad debt charged off in Fire Rescue was listed at $595,442. A collection agency is used in attempt to gather in some of the bad debt, and it gets a cut of the payment. In the same budget year, the debt collector made $19,534 on successful collections.
Commissioners briefly talked about creating a new income source in JCFR.  If an ambulance crew responds and treats, but does not transport, nothing is charged for the trip.
A board member wondered aloud if a nominal fee could be charged for this, but in the end commissioners abandoned the idea.