• planning for our future
  • growth and development
  • BRAC
  • infrastructure expansion

Other Initiatives

Outsourcing Emergency Medical Service Billing

Since becoming a county owned service in the late 1970's, county employees handled the billing operations for county ambulance services. During those years these in-house employees performed a top-notch job billing and collecting the fees associated with ambulance service.

However, as we all know, the billing process for medical care (whether it be with your doctor, hospital, or health insurance) has become increasingly complicated over the last several years. With the retirements of two of the three employees comprising the county's internal billing staff, we seized the opportunity to out-source ambulance billing to the private sector.

Utilizing professionals specialized in ambulance billing operations now provides the county with expert handling and increased success in collecting the fees due for the services provided. While it is estimated outsourcing our billing operation costs the county $150,000 more than our in-house service did, the county's gross receipts have increased by over $450,000 annually resulting in an increase of more than $300,000 in annual net revenues for the county.

For many years the Hardin County Emergency Medical Service (Ambulance Service) operated at a deficit of approximately $300,000 per year. We anticipate the net increase in revenue from outsourcing billing and collections may result in a positive cash flow during the current budget cycle; this will be a first in the service's history!