Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services will no longer handle billing in-house. The county commissioners voted Monday to hire a company called Ambulance Billing Services to do it, at the recommendation of Interim EMS Director Kyle McTiegue. “Our secretary and our biller resigned, and we would like to outsource the billing services,” he explained. “The county should be able to see more reimbursements, quicker turnaround time from the ambulance run to the payment. It eliminates all the liability on Pulaski County EMS, and saves Pulaski County citizens a lot of money. The company’s going to provide our ambulances with new patient care report software and new computers for all our ambulances.”
Also during Monday’s meeting, the commissioners voted to close the EMS Department’s bank account, and move the money into the county’s funds. The issue of EMS and other departments having bank accounts outside the jurisdiction of the county treasurer was raised by Auditor Laura Wheeler during a special county council meeting last month. Concerns about the improper use of county money also led to the firing of EMS Director Nikki Lowry a few weeks ago.
Now, McTiegue says Pulaski County EMS is looking for a new full-time paramedic.
