In the consent agenda for the Tuesday, February 19th meeting of the Hastings City Council, the council will be asked to approve a budget amendment, interfund transfers and write-offs of monies owed to the city. According to the information provided in the council packet, a recent revenue recapture audit conducted by the Minnesota Department of Revenue, the city was informed that debt is only legally allowed to be collected for a period of six years, unless a court order is obtained before the end of the sixth year that would extend the collection period. The city has not written off debt in accounts that have been owed for up to 18 years, with monies owed prior to 2012 now deemed uncollectible. In the ambulance fund, a receivable amount of $4,377,000 is currently on city ledgers. Due to the restrictions of a 6 year time of collection, $1,422,200 dollars are requested to be written off as it would be legally uncollectible.
This would leave $2,955,000 yet to be collected . It was noted that factors such as Medicare and Medicaid caps limit the department to fully collect ambulance billings. The action would not have an impact on the ambulance fund and if an outstanding bill dating from 2000 to 2012 is in the process of being collected, that total would remain on the books. The report notes that the average collection rate for Hastings based ambulance billing is approximately 80% while other sources in the field suggest that a full half of all monies due for medically related transport go unpaid.
Customers with and without insurance use the ride now and pay later service with some cities covering the cost of basic transport to the nearest facility depending on tax rates that can include such service. Ambulance services in larger cities such as Minneapolis billed out more than 11 million in costs in 2017, yet collected less than half of the billing according to end of year audits provided for that city. The Hastings council will be asked to approve the write off as one of eight items listed in the consent agenda.
