This Week in EMS: A Recap for Jan.6 - 12, 2007
Taking a trip into the early days of EMS may soon be just a mouse click away. This effort to establish an online EMS museum was the top story on EMSResponder.com this week, written by senior staff writer Susan Nicol Kyle.
A group of EMS officials from around the country is working to create a virtual museum that will feature photos, oral histories and documents showcasing the pioneers of EMS and visions for the future. In addition, they hope to organize traveling displays during trade shows.
EMS providers are encouraged to get involved in the project, and may sign up for an electronic mailing list to follow the museum's development. To find out more, read the full article, National, Online EMS Museum in Progress, and visit the museum's website, nationalemsmuseum.org.
Another top feature on EMSResponder.com this week was the array of contributions from EMS Magazine columnist G. Christopher Kelly. He has been a longtime editorial advisor and contributor to the magazine, but just this month began a new magazine column called Emergency 4-1-1.
The new column will look at regulations, compliance issues, management topics, and other EMS legal issues. His first column is entitled Snitching for dollars and discusses how the Deficit Reduction Act will reward employees who expose fraud or mistakes within their organization. It can be viewed online or in your January issue of EMS Magazine.
Kelly's article begins, "The Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) contains a provision, effective January 1, 2007, that will directly affect some ambulance service providers. It requires that any entity that receives more than $5 million in Medicaid funds during a calendar year provide False Claims Act training to all of its employees.
"The provision's purpose is to curb Medicaid fraud by educating employees on what is considered a violation of the Act, and to advise them that by turning in offenders (or "blowing the whistle"), they are protected and can even receive a share of any recovered money. The statute allows these "whistle-blowers" to receive 15%-30% of the total amount recovered, which often reaches well into the millions."
In conjunction with the release of his new column, Kelly provided two articles to EMSResponder.com on recently released Office of Inspector General reports. These discuss the findings of two OIG studies of the ambulance industry: one that found $402 million in overpayments to the industry in general (mostly for nonemergent services), and another that found a $21 million overpayment related to in-patient transports.
In addition, Kelly gave an interview for this month's EMS Magazine Monthly Insider podcast, in which he describes his background in legal EMS issues, his plans for the new column and how readers can get involved.
To hear the interview with Chris Kelly, click here.
Related Articles:
Medicare to Recover $21 Million in Ambulance Overpayments for Inpatients
The ambulance industry is going to continue to be a target as long as studies such as these find significant errors and overpayments.-
OIG Report: Ambulance Industry Overpaid $402 Million
If your service is running nonemergent transports, carefully consider these patients and their need for ambulance transportation.
Other top headlines on EMSResponder.com this week:
