Volunteer squads billing patients

[JPINFV]

I do have a question though. Why the big deal about being "not for profit" or "non-profit"? Just curious.............

Tax breaks for the company and tax write-offs for the donator. That said, Google is experimenting with a "for profit" charity so that they can get around some of the rules that limit non-profits.

[Michael]

finally if they wanted to send us anything, even 5 dollars..here is the address to remit funds to

Yo! You left out the address! Anyway, it's too late now. That crack money that no one owns, which I slipped out of Dust's pocket while he was sleeping, has now been taken from my pocket, so I have nothing to send you.

* * *

"The Little Prince ... never forgot a question once he had asked it."

[CJD312]

Has anyone seen any cases where they have lost local government funding due to the fact that the organization has started to bill?

[medic001918]

You bill your patients then you lose your not for profit status. Its been tried near me. A lot of residents despise it because for the most part they cant afford the $300-$1000+ transport.

That's not entirely true. You simply have to show that the money you are making is being put back into the service. One of the city services I work for is considered a not for profit LLC and they certainly bill for every transport that we do. This billing is what has allowed us obtain new trucks, equipment and building renovations. There is a limit that you can have in the bank after all of your expenses (money returned to the service, operation expenses, salary, etc). The concept of a not for profit business is that they are not trying to line an owner (or board member's) pockets with money; not that they are not allowed to make money to cover expenses. Check your local laws for the details and guidelines of a not for profit organization.

Shane

NREMT-P

[resqmdc14]

You CAN bill and not lose your not for profit status. Just set your rates as high as Medicare standards will allow. Then, bill the patients' insurance. Once the insurance has paid what it will, write off the rest and don't agressively bill. That way you can still bill and not lose Non Profit Status.

[ghurty]

Let me warn you.

You can !!!!!NOT!!!!! start billing.

Let me explain why.

You are in NJ so your situation is unique. What the other posters don’t understand is that here in NJ there is something called the volunteer training fund. That is what enables you to get your free training/CEU's. You can only get this if your squad does not charge at all. Not even just insurance.

There is also allot of legal benefits and protections written into NJ law that protects a volunteer FAS, but you lose them as soon as you bill anything.

There was an article in Gold Cross about 2 issues ago listing what you stand to lose by switching. I will try to find it and post it.

So if you want you can start billing, but you lose allot, and the amount of money you gain usually wont be worth it. What your town could do is what allot of other town do (mine included): Have a two tiered system. During the day there is a paid squad. It has to be a separate squad (in our case, it belongs to the local PD) they can charge, and they aren’t eligible for all the protections. At night the vollys run, and they dont charge.

[emtI4now]

What the other posters don’t understand is that here in NJ there is something called the volunteer training fund. That is what enables you to get your free training/CEU's.

I'm not from NJ, but I sure hope there is more to the volunteer training fund than just free CEU's/training.

Because we achieved the same thing here by just sending an interested member to become a Training Officer. We pay for his training, and then he offers training to our members, as well as other service members in the county. We also partner with other Training Officers around the area to bring varied topics/instructors.

If we didn't bill we'd lose over $60,000 (yes, we're a rural volunteer service with a small call volume) in revenue just from Medicare, and to me that's not worth free training. We'd be inable to operate if we didn't bill. As it stands, we are in the hole about $50,000 yearly, and that's with some (albeit minimal) county funding as well as billing.

I would be curious to see the article that Ghurty mentioned on the details of billing vs. not billing etc.

[flight-lp]

Let me warn you.

You can !!!!!NOT!!!!! start billing.

Let me explain why.

You are in NJ so your situation is unique. What the other posters don’t understand is that here in NJ there is something called the volunteer training fund. That is what enables you to get your free training/CEU's. You can only get this if your squad does not charge at all. Not even just insurance.

There is also allot of legal benefits and protections written into NJ law that protects a volunteer FAS, but you lose them as soon as you bill anything.

There was an article in Gold Cross about 2 issues ago listing what you stand to lose by switching. I will try to find it and post it.

So if you want you can start billing, but you lose allot, and the amount of money you gain usually wont be worth it. What your town could do is what allot of other town do (mine included): Have a two tiered system. During the day there is a paid squad. It has to be a separate squad (in our case, it belongs to the local PD) they can charge, and they aren’t eligible for all the protections. At night the vollys run, and they dont charge.

Is that what this is all about, getting free CEU's?!?!?!?!?

Medicare and most state Medicaid programs REQUIRE patient billing if they are to reimburse. The agressivness of that billing is subject to individual discretion, but if your not billing the patient, then Medicare shouldn't be paying you a penny. My organization is a 503 non profit organization. We bill and we receive tax funding from our community. Our budget is just over 5 million per year, which is almost equally split between the two revenue sources. Due to our ability to generate income, we can also have the nice things that others have described including free CEU's. It costs less than $200 to obtain CEU's for recertification. Now figure the average BLS with no intervention transport. Runs around $500. You do the math.............. Granted, Jersey has some strange laws, but this one may take the cake.

[EMT*Sweet]

I have recently implemented an insurance program for a Volunteer service that I work with. I would be happy to give you some details but you will also need to check with your state regulations. The way it works for us is that we bill insurance companies but not the patients. You need to set a rate ( $ amount) that will be billed per mile of transport. So if you charge $8. a mile and travel 30 miles from the scene to the medical facility you bill $240. You remain nonprofit by stating that you are only billing to recover your expense of operation.....We are doing very well with this program right now.

If I can provide any advice or guidance just let me know.......

[FormerEMSLT297]

Free CEU's and aVolunteer training fund does not pay for FUEL..

Having said that there are many many issues. My NY volunteer FD began billing about 10 years ago. As a true combination paid and volunteer service many volunteers were against it.

They felt they shouldn't be charging for their services. But when we began we notified the communtity about the reasons, like fuel, equipment, training costs etc. The comm. was very supportive.

And we bill medicare, medicaid, and pvt insurance, and if we dont collect we dont agressively collect.

Over ten years later, the results are very positive. When we go to the town council to ask for a new ambulance or truck, they whine about how much it will cost, and we remind them about the ambulance billing money we bring in and then they usually relent.

I dont know the specific laws in NJ and what you would lose as far as training money or good sam protection, but we researched it in depth and found the negaitves were out weighed by the monies we would receive.

The only negative in NY that I could remember was that the ambulance had to be NYS certified, instead of just registered, which mean the NYS inspectors could come in and shut us down. We were initially nervous but had an overall good experience with NYS DOH.

I hope this helps.

Good luck.

Former