By Gail Peckler-Dziki/Correspondent
When the Antioch Rescue Squad (ARS) said no to the 6-month extension offered by the Antioch Village board, the ARS lost its license to serve within village boundaries. Instead, the village entered into a contract with Superior Air-Ground Ambulance Service.
Antioch village and township residents, up until that time, never saw a bill. ARS would bill the insurance company but not the resident, even if the resident had no insurance.
The village has contracted with Superior to the tune of $445,000 for a six-month contract. The village will have two ambulances available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to respond to all calls within village boundaries. Superior has also agreed to honor current and future mutual aid agreements to which the village is party and that means outside village boundaries.
Superior will keep all gross receipts until that $445,000 is satisfied. According to the contract, the village will be entitled to keep 50 percent of all gross receipts after that until all expenses the village incurs to provide EMS services are met. Then Superior keeps the rest.
Those expenses include dispatch service costs, oversight of the provision of the emergency services by the contractor and any ancillary expenses.
What if gross receipts don’t reach $445,000? The village will pay the rest out of the general fund and there will be no recouping of expenses.
Rates for residents for basic life support (BLS) are $800; non-residents will be charged $1,000. The resident rate for ALS is $1,000 and non-residents will be charged $1,200.
A resident will be charged $1,200 for ALS-2 and a non-resident will be charged $1,400. A mileage rate for residents is $16.40 per mile, while the rate for non-residents is $20.
The contract also says that Superior will bill third party payers at the above rates, which were set by the village board. Anything that is not covered by the third party payer will be billed to the patient. Superior will also bill for ancillary or other charges as allowed by law.
What about a forgiveness policy? According to Nixon in an email response to the question, he wrote, “There is nothing in the contract for Superior to be responsible for any forgiveness of amounts owed. The plan is that the Village will form a small committee to create guidelines for determining who would be eligible for consideration of forgiveness on any ambulance fees that they may not be able to pay for. Through the billing service reporting to the Village on accounts with past due balances, we would be made aware of those that need review.”
“We would be made of any special circumstances by Superior and address them,” he continued, “Ultimately, we could ask Superior to forgive an amount due.”
There is nothing in the contract and the village does not appear to have any written policy on this issue.
No bill for ambulance service is now a thing of the past for village of Antioch residents. And should gross receipts no reach that $445,000 in six months, money will be paid to Superior from the general fund. And while the village can ask for forgiveness, there is apparently no guarantee, since it seems that Superior will make the final decision when the village asks.
One complaint made by Antioch mayor Larry Hanson was that the village stood by ARS during the sex scandal. Superior was named in the same suit as the ARS, along with Metro Paramedic Services.
ARS officials say they are waiting for a dismissal of this lawsuit.