Audit Says Contractor Erred in Collecting Md. Ambulance Fees

Feb. 03--The company that ran Baltimore's problematic speed cameras in 2012 will not retain its contract for billing ambulances fee in Anne Arundel County after an audit discovered multiple problems.

The county requested an audit of Xerox State and Local Solutions after a Fire Department employee discovered discrepancies in ambulance bills.

Officials said the audit from J.H. Henry Consulting of Pittsburgh found billing errors, including a failure to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of ambulance fees because employees were unaware of medical coding regulations.

Xerox officials did not respond to a request for comment.

County officials said that auditors reviewed a sample of 110 claims sent to Medicare and Medicaid and found two-thirds were not billed properly and one-third had the wrong insurance codes.

The auditor estimated that billing and coding errors in 2012 may have cost the county $315,000 in potential revenue. The county also missed out on revenue by not charging patients for each mile driven. That could earn the county $638,000 per year, officials said.

The cost of the audit was $10,375, officials said.

Xerox's contract with the county is set to expire at the end of March and the county plans not to renew the contract. Xerox has handled ambulance billing in Anne Arundel since 2009 and has been paid a percentage of the ambulance fees that were collected.

"We are entrusted with taxpayer dollars, so we will scrutinize the services of every vendor doing business with our county," County Executive Laura Neuman said in a statement.

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