Fla. County Getting More Aggressive in Ambulance Fee Collections

May 21--Palm Beach County commissioners are pledging to be more aggressive when it comes to collecting millions of dollars in unpaid fees for ambulance rides.

They'll start by seeking bids this summer for a new collections agency and an outside attorney to pursue claims in court.

"We should take a look at doing things a little differently," Commissioner Shelley Vana said. "The idea of a separate attorney to do this is important."

Although county commissioners agreed on Tuesday to write $24.2 million in uncollected fees from 2007-2010 off the county's books, the new collection agency and attorney would be able to pursue collections of those and more recent debts owed by people transported by Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.

That 2007-10 fees were deemed uncollectable for a variety of reasons, mainly because patients didn't have health insurance or their insurance companies were not paying.

The commission's 6-0 vote to write the $24.2 million off the books was done to show that Fire Rescue isn't actually relying on the money. But it sparked a debate on whether the county's current collection agency, Advanced Data Processing Inc., was doing enough to pursue claims.

ADPI hired its own attorney, Boca Raton lawyer Bobbie Celler, to pursue fees related to vehicle accidents and claims made against patients' personal injury protection coverage, county officials said. The county's new bid will allow the county to choose the attorney.

County officials admitted they didn't know much about the arrangement ADPI made with Celler's firm or how much of the unpaid $24.2 million is related to car accident claims.

The county commission's decision to seek new proposals came after some lobbying by the West Palm Beach law firm of Schuler, Halvorson and Weisser. Among the firm's representatives at Tuesday's county commission meeting was state Rep. Dave Kerner, D-Palm Springs.

"It doesn't make sense to have a collections company selecting the lawyers that are going to be representing the county,'' attorney Jason Weisser told commissioners.

County Attorney Denise Nieman said her office isn't set up to purse claims for unpaid ambulance rides.

"Our bottom line is to collect as much as we can collect,'' she told commissioners.

Darryl Hartung, an ADPI vice president who works on the Fire Rescue account, was not immediately available for comment.

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