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1300K F9. � 850 <br />Any commitment made by staff is sincere and has been formal- <br />ly demonstrated in that management expended only 89.50 of <br />the budget approved by the Board and supplied by the Indian <br />River Memorial Hospital in FY 88-89 to operate the <br />countywide service. In excess of 350,000 in inventory was <br />on hand at the end of the year excluding capital equipment <br />and start up costs.- Staff will continue to be diligent in <br />terms of utilizing tax revenues while providing the citizens <br />of the county with exceptional Advanced Life Support ser- <br />vice. <br />Director Wright gave the Board a quick synopsis, advising <br />that to date we have collected $104,813 through December. A <br />couple of days after the first of the year, the billing agency <br />received an additional check from Medicare for $18,000, which <br />makes December look a lot better since he believed that check <br />applied to a period in December. If that is the case, then we <br />exceeded our expectations for that month, and he hoped that is a <br />sign of things to come. If we can do just as well the next 3 <br />quarters, we should collect $491,000, which still would indicate <br />a shortfall of $75-100,000. However, it is felt we can make that <br />much up through extending the life of some of our capital <br />equipment, and, through attrition, we can let some positions just <br />lie dormant for short periods of time to build up some reserve <br />there. <br />Director Wright noted that the news media refers to what is <br />proposed as a rate hike, and he stressed that he is not asking <br />for a rate hike. We are simply asking for a change in billing <br />procedure and requesting that we provide an ALS level of service <br />on each and every run;'that even on calls that are determined by <br />the Paramedics to be BLS, we take ALS precautions to make sure we <br />are not going to jeopardize a patient's life. We actually don't <br />run a BLS service at all. This is being done in other jurisdic- <br />tions; it is a way we can increase our revenues lawfully; and <br />Director Wright submitted that we should be billing at an ALS <br />rate. <br />Chairman Eggert noted that, in other words, this is really a <br />reclassification. <br />18 <br />