The Urgency of our Billing Issues in EMS--Put into Stark Terms

As EMS reserve funds dwindle, the need to get our billing on track quickly takes on a greater urgency according to a memo from our Clerk of the Court and Comptroller Pam Childers

Thursday of this week we will vote to either bring aboard some temporary staff members or we will bring in an outside entity to help us get caught up on a nearly $9.6 Million dollar backlog of billing for accounts receivable in the EMS department.

At our last meeting when we discussed this subject (May 9th Committee of the whole)--I was under the impression that we would have this billing all caught up by the end of June--and by the end of the FY our collections from this billing would bring our revenue back in line with projections.

But then we received a concerning memo from our Clerk of the Court and Comptroller Pam Childers late last week.  From her memo to the Board:

"March 2019 the mid-year fund audit performed by Clerk staff, found that the billing was substantially behind by $9.6M. Recent inquiry indicated that November 24, 2018 to Current still needed to be coded/billed. Per conversations with EMS staff; Tamika Williams; billing was expected to be current by June 2019; however transitioning billing between two software systems caused further delay.  By mid-May 2019 the EMS cash has decreased to $1.3M. If this decline continues, EMS may temporarily require a solution to fund operations.

EMS billing has gone from 4 months behind to 6 months behind since September 2018.  The urgency to have billing current at September 30, 2019 is crucial.  Delayed billing has a negative impact on cash and collections, creating cash flow issues, loss of interest revenue, creating a material deficiency in operations and will delay the required financial audit.  Current staffing levels appear unable to catch up the backlog." 

We have got to get a handle on this ASAP.  At this point, I believe we must bring in outside contractors knowledgeable in this field, to get our billing and collections back on track.

further in her memo-the comptroller puts the danger of inaction or a slow response to this issue in


 stark terms:

By mid-May 2019 the EMS cash has decreased to $1.3M. If this decline continues, EMS may temporarily require a solution to fund operations.

(That means the general fund would have to cover the shortfall)

I believe we will get this situation on track this Thursday.

We have to.

read the memo here