City awards contract for ambulance fee collection
Chicago has struggled for 33 years to collect the fees for ambulance service first imposed in 1985. For the first time in more than a decade, somebody else will give it a try.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration has awarded a five- year, $ 17.5 million contract — with a possible three- year extension — to Advanced Data Processing Inc.
The contract calls for the company to conduct both Part A, described as “EMS billing and collection,” as well as Part B, a “patient tracking and mobile electronic patient care and reporting system.”
Deputy Budget Director Molly Poppe said the new contract achieves $ 500,000 in annual savings, thanks to the “lower rate” negotiated by the city’s Department of Finance.
The old contract included a 7% fee: a 5% base fee and a 2% compliance fee paid only if the contractor achieves less than a 5% error rate on its monthly compliance audit.
The new rate is 3.95%— 2.7% base fee and a 1.25% compliance fee. The contract also includes the monthly auditing process.
But the biggest change includes improvements to the patient care management system.
“It is replacing the 10- 15- year- old tablets in the ambulances. There upgraded tablets and enhanced software will provided for easier access to reporting system,” Poppe wrote in an email.
“It also includes the ability for data to be seamlessly transferred from fire suppression members to paramedics and provides a separate application on each device for better management of major incidents.
Poppe cited a “common misconception on self- pay” and the city’s collection rate.
“After you adjust for the amounts that Medicare and Medicaid do not pay, we have a good collection rate. Self- pay collection rate is low, but that is everywhere, not just Chicago,” she wrote.