The Urgency of our EMS Billing Issues, Put into Stark Terms Part II

A troubling decline in both the gross billing amounts and the amounts collected from our EMS department will be discussed today

The above graphic was provided by the staff of the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller, Pam Childers' office.

Last week a one-pager was issued describing the problem from a cash-burn, financial emergency standpoint.  I asked at that time for some additional information which was provided yesterday.

As you can see, EMS has a serious financial issue with the collections not keeping up with the revenue outflow.  ($611K being brought in on average monthly with $1.3Million going out in expenses)

Left unchecked, the BCC's general fund will be feeding this unit within about 40 days.

This is why it is of paramount importance that we vote today to immediately re-instate our relationship with the organization that can assist us with getting our billing out ASAP so that we can get our collections up.

But another troubling aspect of the chart I am seeing is this:  Where is all the business going?  from $52 Million in gross billing in 2017 down to $40 Million in 2018--why the big decline?  And 2019 is on track to have an even smaller total than 2018....so why are the billing numbers going downhill?

We get this on track today.  Today.

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