EDITOR’S NOTE: The parties billed by Olympic Ambulance through Systems Design and the source of funds for unpaid ambulance charges not otherwise covered by Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance have been corrected in this report.
PORT ANGELES — Patients living within the Port Angeles city limit who are taken by Olympic Ambulance Services Inc. to Olympic Medical Center will no longer receive bills for out-of-pocket expenses.
The City Council approved an agreement Tuesday under which Bremerton-based Olympic Ambulance, owned by Bill Littlejohn of Sequim, will bill Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance through Systems Design, an emergency medical service billing company also used by the Port Angeles Fire Department.
That means unpaid charges not otherwise covered by Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance for those living within the city limit will be taken care of by the Medic 1 fund.
Olympic Ambulance partners with the fire department on medical transports, taking basic-life-support patients to OMC, with the more serious advanced-life-support patients transported by the fire department’s emergency personnel.
Fire department transports of city residents are covered under Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance, with the difference covered by Medic 1 charges that are part of residents’ utility bills. The new agreement means ambulance service fees from Olympic Ambulance will now be handled in the same way.
Out-of-town patients are billed for transport costs not covered by government or private insurance.
Olympic Ambulance was directly billing patients for expenses not covered by Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance.
Olympic Ambulance charges $739 for a transport.
When patients did not pay, the company was left with using collection agencies to obtain the difference.
“The amount of money we are talking about is minimal in comparison to the confusion it’s created over the years,” Kim Droppert, Olympic Ambulance general manager, told council members Tuesday.
“This is a far better accommodation for our citizens, especially at their most vulnerable time of stress.”
In voting for the agreement, Councilman Dan Gase praised Dale Wilson, publisher of the free newspaper Port O Call, for bringing the issue to the council’s attention.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
