Inside the EMS Billing and Software Investigation Part I: What Are the Report's 2 Key Conclusion (s)?

The report on EMS billing and software issues is 32 pages of narrative and 70 pages of exhibits-but in the end two main conclusions are reached and described.  

This week the board members were all provided with a very thorough and well-written summary of the county's internal affairs investigation into the ESO/Zoll software switch ---and also the nearly $6 Million dollar write off of noncollectable EMS receivables we approved in April.

Upon obtaining a copy and reading the entire report, I spoke with legal staff to ascertain if anything uncovered in the report rose to the level of a criminal act, and I also asked if this report is a public record.

I was told the sustained findings in the report do not rise to the level of a crime, and due to the fact that the individual named in the report no longer works for the county, it is and will be up to the BCC to pursue any next steps regarding what was described in the report (e.g. whether or not to send the report to SAO).

Although legal staff has advised this document is a public record--as I read it I realized there are some items that should be redacted before release, so therefore I will heed the warning on the front cover of the report, above, and not link the document here as I had originally intended to do.

But I will discuss the two main areas covered in the report.

1.  According to the report, and based upon the evidence collected by the investigator, the acquisition of ESO software was done in contravention to BCC policy--as the total cost of the complete solution would have exceeded the $50,000.00 threshold for triggering a competitive bid for the software.  Because the purchase was apparently incrementalized to avoid going over the approved non-competitive purchasing threshold, the report indicates that numerous purchasing ordinances and the Escambia Code of Ethics were violated. (page 26, 27 of report).

2.  EMS billing issues and noncollectable write-offs were not completely the result of the failed software implementation/conversion from ZOLL/ESO/ZOLL--although this exacerbated the situation.  According to the report: "While there was a failure of the department to evaluate all end-users that could be affected by the EMS Operations ESO Solutions software implementation, the required write-off of bad debt was attributed to a failure of management to continue to review and ensure the workflow for billing would be conducted in all billing systems[emphasis added]."  and the last sentence of page 29 is really the key, and it is what I'll be looking into and describing in a follow-on post:  "Additionally, the reported 'overlooked accounts' or unbilled accounts caused by a 'computer glitch' represented to the BCC during the April 4, 2019 meeting, could not be supported by testimony or documentary evidence [emphasis added]"

Were we intentionally misled to approve the write off?