WASHINGTON CO. PARTING WAYS WITH AIR MEDICAL PROVIDER; HELICOPTER PROGRAM WILL CONTINUE
Washington County is moving in a different direction with its integrated air ambulance program.
Commissioners voted unanimously this (Tuesday) morning to proceed with a 90 day termination agreement with its current air medical provider, REACH Air Medical Services. The agreement, which was entered into in November 2019, will end effective June 13th.
EMS Director Kevin Deramus said the county believes that with a different provider, it can both increase the amount of time the aircraft is available and shrink the cost going into the county’s air medical subscription program with AirMedCare Network.
Deramus said in 2021, the county’s aircraft was available 77 percent of the time and out of service for 23 percent, compared to the industry standard of 98 percent availability. Commissioner Candice Bullock noted that when the aircraft is down, constituents in need of air transport have to use a different provider that does not include the benefits of Washington County EMS’ air medical program, which Deramus said can lead to additional costs for the patient.
According to a release provided from County Judge John Durrenberger after the meeting, the county’s goal has always been to migrate the air medical billing operations into the county’s revenue recovery operations, and it feels now is the time to do it. Performing this action, according to the release, will eliminate the need for the county to continue funding the subscription program’s annual cost of approximately $135,000. The release further stated that as the county performs its own agency billing for the operations as a government entity, it is able to waive co-pays as it does for ground EMS patients.
Full press release from Washington County Judge John Durrenberger:
The Commissioner Court of Washington County has decided to execute section 5.1 of the current agreement between REACH Air Medical and Washington County for integrated air ambulance operations. This section describes a 90 day termination agreement that either party may opt to use. Washington County believes it's in the best interest of the citizens, agencies, and future program direction that we take advantage of this opportunity and make the needed directional changes to better provide service to the Washington County residents.
First and foremost the air medical program has been widely successful with its primary mission of providing air ambulance lifesaving operations to our citizens, visitors and neighbors. This will only continue to improve with these upcoming changes. The program is not going anywhere and will remain a functioning part of the public safety EMS agency in Washington County. We believe the redirection is required to increase aircraft availability, decrease out of service time, and reduce the need for the county subscription program to Air Med Care Network. It has always been our goal to migrate the air medical billing operations into our revenue recovery operations at some point and we believe now is the time. In doing so it will eliminate the need for us to continue to fund the subscription program annual cost of approximately $135,000. As we perform our own county agency billing for the operations, [as] a government entity we are able to wave those co-pays amounts just as we are doing on the ground transportations of EMS patients.
Also at today’s meeting, the court:
- Approved $6,969,658 of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to be designated as loss revenue. County Judge John Durrenberger said before the meeting that counties have the option to declare ARPA funds as loss revenue if they receive less than $10 million. He said doing so allows the county to use the money for a wider variety of purposes, while still abiding by federal guidelines for spending the funds. He said the county intends to focus on using the funding for “long-term infrastructure projects” and “for the benefit of the taxpayer.”
- Approved the extension of a contractor agreement between the county and Revenue Optimization Solutions, LLC to serve as EMS’ consultant for the Texas Ambulance Supplemental Payment Program (TASPP).