At their April meeting, the Hopkinsville-Christian County Ambulance Board discussed the possibility of reducing EMS wages as the result of low revenue. After signing with a new billing company, the board announced that revenue from EMS services has drastically risen at their meeting on Tuesday.
Earlier in the year, the Hopkinsville Fire Department parted ways with its old billing service after the company was unable to file any of the department’s insurance claims due to a cyber-attack. In April the department hired 911 Billing Services, a family-run company in Madisonville, to handle insurance claims and since then the department’s revenue has increased.
In August the department generated over $580,000 of revenue and Fire Chief, Steve Futrell says around 95% of that revenue came from insurance claims, and revenue from ambulance services has been able to pay 100% of EMS wages which are not set to decrease.
Board Chair, Darrell Gustafson says it’s been a while since the department’s revenue outweighed the expenses and the new billing company is off to a great start.
After discussing department finances, the board approved issuing a bid for the purchase of a new ambulance. In the next fiscal year, Futrell says he hopes to purchase a sixth full-time ambulance.
Although the bid was approved there is no time frame set on when the department will be able to purchase and Futrell says it could take over three years.
The ambulance purchase bid comes as service calls to the department have increased. For the past five months, Futrell says EMS has responded to over 1,000 calls per month and ambulances have been taking longer on calls.
With increased call demand, Hopkinsville Mayor, J.R. Knight shared that in between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. most days the department is out of available ambulances. Knight also says citizens in the northern part of the county often have to endure longer response times in contrast to the rest of the county.
Concerning coverage, Futrell says construction is underway for Fire Station Five on Walton Way and will improve the department’s coverage and response times in the southern part of the county. Futrell says construction crews are demolishing parts of the existing structure and surveying the land before breaking ground.
Fire Station Five is projected to be operational in around a year.