NE - Computer problems delay ambulance service billing BY J. CHRISTOPHER HAIN Lincoln Journal Star

City officials are blaming computer troubles for a two-month delay in the Lincoln Fire Department's new ambulance service sending out a single bill. Additionally, the ambulance service is projected to roughly break even for the first three months and could be in the black by the end of the fiscal year Aug. 1, city officials told the Lincoln City Council on Monday.

Sherrie Knudsen, Lincoln Fire Department's EMS business manager, said no bills for ambulance service were sent out for the first two months because of troubles with computers "talking to each other." The Fire Department contracts with Healthcare Management Services of Lincoln for billing services.

Said Fire Chief Mike Spadt: "I was a little disappointed in their performance to date."

As a result of the billing delay, the city had received by April 4 only $8,120 for its first three months of ambulance service, said city Finance Director Don Herz.

The city projects it will eventually bill $1.5 million for ambulance service through March 31. And the Fire Department had sent out $929,029 worth of bills by Monday, Knudsen said.

But 25 percent to 35 percent of ambulance billings will never be collected, Herz said. Generally, an ambulance service must write off a certain percentage of bills because either insurance companies or others don't pay the full amount, he said.

That means city officials expect to generate roughly $1 million in revenue for the first three months compared with roughly $1 million in estimated expenditures, Herz said.

Expenditures should decrease within the next month when the city stops renting ambulances and receives permanent ones, he said.

The Fire Department is paying roughly $70,000 a month to rent ambulances, Herz said. But the 11 new ambulances will cost the city only $12,000 monthly for depreciation - plus interest - over the next seven years, he said.

Spadt said the Fire Department expects its first permanent ambulance to arrive April 27, three more on April 28, three more on May 4 and the final four on May 18.

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-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001