Lewisburg Councilmember Lori Pheanis, presiding over the council meeting in the absence of mayor Dennis Roberts. asks municipal manager Jeff Sewert a question.
Terry Baver | The Register-Herald
LEWISBURG — Council approved a resolution establishing the charges and collection policies for emergency medical services provided by the village’s EMS department.
“We’re in the process of changing from the previous billing company who was hacked last February and has not been doing any collection work at all on our behalf on EMS billing since February,” Lewisburg Law Director Steve Hobbs said.
“The company officials have also notified us they will cease operations in this arena by the end of the year, so we needed to locate another company anyway,” Hobbs continued.
Hobbs said another company has been selected and the resolution “sets forth the procedures for billing.”
The company the village will use for billing services is Medicount Management, of Cincinnati.
“Currently, we do not bill residents of the village of Lewisburg. We ‘soft bill’ them which means we send them a bill and they turn it in to their insurance and whatever the insurance pays we accept as payment in full. If nothing gets paid, we don’t do anything further as far as collection efforts,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs said the village “hard bills” non-residents who use the village’s EMS service.
“The theory of that is we have the income tax levy that is going to fire and EMS in part, so we give them (residents) a break because they are paying through their taxes toward that service versus people who are outside the community and are traveling through the community who might need EMS services,” Hobbs explained.
“This resolution sets forth those procedures and indicates we are going to use as the rate of billing the amount we are entitled to under the Medicare/Medicaid standards set by the federal government, which is generally what everybody else does,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs indicated the plan is for council to approve the resolution under emergency status so the fire department can start collecting fees as soon as possible.
Council also approved a resolution to levy a tax in excess of the 10-mill limitation declared by the state of Ohio.
“This is the current operating levy that is up for renewal,” Hobbs explained.
“This levy is for 3.8 mills. It comes up for renewal every five years,” Hobbs continued.
Hobbs noted the Montgomery County Board of Elections has looked at the proposed levy and “has received court approval.”
“It also has to be cast for ballot language by the (Ohio) secretary of state and some other folks,”Hobbs continued.
“Is this just a renewal?” councilmember Marla Brown asked.
“Yes. It is not a replacement. It is a renewal. This is a life blood levy. We desperately need to have this levy,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs said the levy request needs to be submitted by August in order to have it placed on the November ballot.
Reach Terry Baver at [email protected].
