The determinate figures of an actual amount of loss from the miss management of Calhoun EMS has now been up for debate for greater than 60 days. Each time it was questioned by citizens during a County Commission meeting, no answers were provided, only statements such as “we’re looking into it,” or “we cannot accurately answer that question so we’ll not answer it all.” Citizens who have prod for response have been told to “let it go and move forward.” Neither the EMS Board or the Calhoun County Commission (as a body) have made an attempt at clearing the matter up before the community to the point of satisfaction. It’s not as though the information sought was unattainable. Pieces of information continued to drop, letting the community know that there was indeed numbers available that would allow for computation of how much the county lost in revenue from the EMS debacle.
A recent intercepted message received by the Ridgeview News shows that Jason Wilson had indeed attempted to show that it wasn’t only an issue with 2022, but the years prior also show an issue of unbilled runs and revenue loss.
Crystal Mersh, 1982 Foundation President, Businesswoman and Citizen has prior experience in forensic auditing, “successful” business management and the wherewithal to do her own computation when her level of frustration reached the point of no return. Promise after promise was broken by all parties in charge to deliver the lost revenue answer to her.
Through her own computation Mersh figured revenue lost by the numbers of unbilled runs, along with the percentage of payable amounts from agencies such as insurance companies and Medicare. Her social media post listed the amount of $607,000 lost in 2.66 years.
The alarming factor for those of us outside the realm of fully understanding everything that occurs in the medical field is the fact that, every year there were numerous undocumented calls. While it’s been said that those calls “may” have been refusal of transport, that still doesn’t excuse the fact that a medical run was not documented and that if questions of liability ever arose, there was no evidence to protect the patient or the crew on duty. If a patient refuses transport a signature is required. No signature means that they could tell any story they’d like for a transport not occurring. But a greater concern is a transport that did happen without a run sheet. Was there’s drugs administered? Did something happen in transport? Who was even on the transport?
I can tell you from experience that the night I had the heart attack in 2018 and was transported by ambulance to Parkersburg first, and then to Ruby in Morgantown. I was well taken care of. But I was taken care of by a very tired EMT and Paramedic who “praise God” had come off of other shifts and stepped up to transport me because I was a critical need.
This article is not to debate the need of an ambulance. Without out it, our entire county is in crisis. We want responsible people running the ambulance and managing the system. I believe the County will support another levy. But not until somebody steps up, owns what has happened and stops looking at the concerned citizens as the enemy.
Monday, March 13th, 2023 is the next Calhoun County Commission Meeting. If you rely on the entities that Calhoun County has for your family, you are encouraged to attend and give voice to the future of these programs. We request that you show up civil. It’s not our job to disrupt a government meeting which will do nothing but cause greater delay. But it is our job to hold Government leaders accountable for the salaries for which we pay them. If you look at them as you would an employee hired for your company would you allow what has happened to occur without answers?
- For those wanting the Math of Crystal Mersh, here are the hand written pages created as she determined where the $607,000 came from:
