The July 14 webcast of Wisconsin EMS Live was dedicated to discussing TRIP (Tax Refund Intercept Program) and Stars of Life 2015.
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Since 2007, a legislative emphasis for the Professional Ambulance Association of Wisconsin has been TRIP, which stands for Tax Refund Intercept Program. Since an ambulance service can't do a credit check when being dispatched to a person's 911 call, some patients unfortunately don't pay their ambulance bill even after the insurance company has sent the check directly to them for that purpose. This leaves the ambulance service in a bad situation unable to collect on services rendered, meet its own financial obligations, and reinvest those funds in its operation, equipment and staff. Some of Wisconsin's largest ambulance services are writing off each year $500,000 to one-million dollars in noncollectable debt.
TRIP recently passed the Wisconsin legislature and is simply awaiting Governor Scott Walker's signature. Gold Cross Ambulance - Fox Valley Executive Director Mark Fredrickson spoke with Governor Walker at his residence on Sunday, July 5 to confirm the Governor's support of TRIP (picture insert).
In the meantime, we need to prepare ambulance service management not familiar with TRIP, explain how it works, and is used as another option to collections when other attempts have failed. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue administers TRIP, which municipal owned ambulance services have had access to for years. With Governor Walker's signature, it opens the option of TRIP to all Wisconsin ambulance services under contract with a municipality to provide 911 service. TRIP cannot be used for inter-facility transfers or patients with Medicare or Medicaid insurance coverage.
Wisconsin EMS Live program guests who discussed TRIP and answered questions included: from The Stark Collection Agency in Madison, Pauline Kussart, and from Valders Ambulance, Director Jay Steuer. According to both Pauline and Jay, "11% of an ambulance service billings go through the TRIP process for payment".
The second half of the 60 minute program was dedicated to discussing Wisconsin Stars of Life 2015 with committee members Larry Knuth, a 2009 Star recipient himself, and Linda Wiedmann. The event is to recognize Wisconsin's best EMTs and Paramedics as nominated by their respective departments. An update was also offered by Dan Williams on the conference agenda for Paramedics Systems of Wisconsin this coming September 23 to 25.
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