$300K Keeps W.Va. Company Afloat, For Now

Dec. 24--BAKER, W.Va. -- Mathias-Baker EMS was given $300,000 by Hardy County commissioners so it can continue operations, according to County Commissioner A.J. Wade.

The EMS company has been providing service to the Lost River Valley and surrounding areas for years but was set to buckle Wednesday if it didn't receive financial assistance, according to Wade.

The emergency services company recently paid $1,068,717 to settle allegations filed in U.S. District Court in Wheeling that it submitted false claims for payment to Medicare and Medicaid programs.

"The county commission has a duty to provide emergency ambulance service throughout the county," Wade said in an interview with the Times-News.

"We didn't know how serious their financial situation was until the middle of December, and we did not have sufficient time to implement a contingency plan to provide for continued service. So we felt we could not allow several thousand residents of the area to be without emergency ambulance service. The only way to avoid that is to provide financial service to allow them to continue to operate for the time being."

Mathias-Baker EMS will report its financial progress to the commissioners on a monthly basis, and the commission is working on a contingency plan should the company fail to rectify its financial situation, Wade said.

So far, the state has not given the EMS company any money; however, it would be willing to help, said Harold Michael, Hardy County delegate.

"We will help in any way we can as the option is to have two-thirds of Hardy County without emergency services," said Michael in an email to the Times-News.

Currently, there are no other requests to the commission for any assistance for other volunteer rescue squads in the area, according to Wade.

"If there is a request from someone else, we will deal with at that time. I don't anticipate it will happen. This was a very rare occurrence," said Wade.

The settlement agreement Mathias-Baker reached ends an investigation into allegations that it submitted false claims to Medicare and Medicaid for non-emergency ambulance transports from May 2008 to January 2010, in that the patients were being taken to and from routine medical appointments even though their medical conditions did not require ambulance transport.

There are additional circumstances regarding the fraud case a year or so ago, said Michael.

"Our federal government told them to sign the agreement or they would cut off Medicare and Medicaid funding, which is the bulk of their income, if Mathias-Baker contested their findings," said Michael. "The feds said these type of cases usually take two to three years to resolve if contested (all of that time with no income)."

Neighboring Grant County is in the second year of a five-year contract that provides Mathias-Baker EMS with $185,000 for services to the 12,000 residents in that county, according to Ed Fischer, county administrator. At no point was the contract with Mathias-Baker EMS reconsidered despite the fraud case.

At this point, there are no additional meetings scheduled with Mathias-Baker EMS, according to Wade. The next county commission meeting will be Jan. 3.

Contact Elaine Blaisdell at eblaisdell@times-news.com.

Copyright 2011 - Cumberland Times-News, Md.