TOPSHAM

Topsham is continuing its look at solutions for ambulance billing.

At their June 21 meeting, selectmen deadlocked 2-2 on whether to outsource billing efforts, as some members first wanted to explore an in-house option.

The move to hire an outside firm for billing services was suggested by Topsham

Fire Chief Chris McLaughlin, noting it would save the town time and money. In 2017, the fire department received 1,267 calls, and its annual revenue is estimated at $300,000.

Outsourcing the billing would come with a price — a percentage of the revenue would come to about $18,000, according to McLaughlin — but the chief thinks it would better utilize staff to make the move.

“When in-house staff is doing the billing but stuff happens in town, that’s the priority,” said McLaughlin. “You can’t have the best of both worlds in the fire industry and predict if it will be a slow day or busy day.”

With one member absent, the town’s select board tied in a June 21 vote — Chairman David Douglass and William Thompson were opposed, Marie Brilliant and Ruth Lyons were in favor — to move billing operations to an outside company.

Douglass and Thompson wanted to analyze whether a current administrative position in the police department could be made to meet the ambulance billing needs. Police department Records Clerk Barbara Hall will be retiring in August, and Town Manager Rich Roedner will meet with department heads to discuss the feasibility of restructuring the position.

“The position is (currently) responsible for a lot of the communication between the reporting agency, the department, and the county,” said Roedner.

Hall files reports for the police department, as well as handles payroll and scheduling for it. The question is whether adding ambulance billing to the list of duties would be an option.

“What happens right now is we use a call firefighter to do a lot of the billing work,” said Roedner. “It will at least come before the board as a report, if we can find a solution.”

In addition to seeing how the duties would fit into an in-house position, a challenge will be to find someone with the proper certification to fill the role.

Although not every call comes with a bill for service, each one must still be processed by a fire department staff member. It takes about 16 hours of work for every 37 calls, according to McLaughlin, and the town currently pays about $4,500 for its billing software. He noted that his former department in Gardiner increased their revenues by 10 percent just by switching billing companies.

“Billing companies are very motivated. It’s what they do,” said McLaughlin. “If there’s an error they will find it and follow up.”

An outside billing company would seek out lost revenues when billing issues arise, he noted, which could be as simple as a paperwork mistake. That is difficult to do, he said, when a member of the department is balancing billing and firefighting duties.

While selectmen differed on a solution, they were in agreement something must be done and expect discussion between Roedner and department staff will produce a favorable outcome.

Selectmen next meet on July 19.

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