Ken-Tenn EMS Board updated on EMT classes set to begin

EMT classes were discussed at the Ken Tenn EMS meeting on Jan. 21, in the Fulton County Fiscal Court room in Hickman, for their regular monthly meeting.

Board members David Gallagher, Mike Gunn, Johnny Bacon, Pete Algee, Hugh Caldwell, Jim Martin, Rebecca Biehslich, and Amelia Prater attended.

Gunn reported, “The classes will begin Feb. 10, and meet on Monday and Thursday, 6 – 9 p.m., through the end of May, at the Four Rivers Career Academy, as Four Rivers received their TEI (teacher education institute), which gives them their number from the State as an approved education center. There are six class instructors, with students showing up for interviews. They completed three processes, application, interview, and testing in Math and Reading. The class size will be limited to 20.

“What happens if they fail the entry test, but we think they should be there?” asked Martin.

“They have to finish the test. We will require them to have an 80 overall score to be able to sit for the exam,” Gunn said.

Sponsorship for the EMT class includes, South Fulton, two; Fulton City, two; Fulton County, 10; Fulton County Detention Center, two; and Four Rivers, four.

Martin asked, “What kind of fallback provisions are being put in, if someone gets in and then decides they don’t want to finish? If we have already paid $1,000, that will not go over good.”

Gunn said, “We need to have a plan, if you don’t pass, you owe the money back. The County may want to have a two or three year work-off program. It the individual fails the class, there will be a requirement to pay back the fee.”

Martin added, as for the County, there will be a requirement that they must participate in the program for a period of time.

Bacon reported, “The City of South Fulton issued a check this past month for $21,000 for a partial month of November and full month in December.”

Gunn reported on the membership billing software, in the absence of EMS Director Kevin Kelley, notices have been sent to some of the County residents, who are paying.

“We still need to identify the ones who are not paying into the system. We are not at 100% yet, but it is much better than it was,” Gunn said.

“I talked to Allison Whitledge on Monday, about the KTEMS Fulton Station Acquisition. With the purchase sale/agreement, there were some discrepancies, but that has since all been agreed upon,” Gunn reported.

“There was a little discrepancy between Whitledge and the CHS attorney. Seems they didn’t want the closing attorney and the city’s representation attorney to be the same, which was going to make us go find another attorney somewhere. I talked with Allison and said if that is what he wanted to get Rick to be the third attorney,” Gunn said.

Discussions were held on the December 2019 financial report.

“Debt went over $17,000 and we are trying to pay debt service down. Milton Dean and I are working on correcting this so it doesn’t happen again. It was a matter of checks coming in at the right time and payments needing to be dispersed. We made it through and with South Fulton’s contribution, that squares us up,” Gunn reported.

Debt services include trying to pay down the cardiac monitors, to be paid by March or April, then the ambulance at The Citizens Bank, and stretchers.

Donations received for the KTEMS included Tokai, $1,000; Bayer Aspirin Kentucky Farm winner Dixon Farms, $2,500; and an anonymous donation of $2,500.

“There are two ambulance bills dealing with Medicaid, which will actually cost Fulton County some money. House Bill 100, is the one we have been waiting to help us fund and it did not erase any of our issues. HB 100 allows the Fiscal Court to put a fee for the ambulance service on the tax bills. There are two issues with us. Number one is the fee is $100 a year, and it is not enough. We are collecting $204 off of water meters. Number two is on the tax bill it only reaches about 75% of the households in the County,” Martin said.

I wrote an email back to Stan Humphries and Steven Rudy to see if they would agree to offer an amendment to the bill. We think this bill will get some traction. Offer an amendment that would offer an option to Fiscal Court and not putting it on the tax bill, but putting on another monthly billing service they could create, and increase the maximum from $100 to $200. This is not what we wanted, but it is better than where we were,” Martin added.

“House Bill 8, will take the total number of dollars that are non-government dollars in the Medicaid allotment. Then divide by the total of EMS ground transport runs across the State. Then multiply by ground transport runs by the local EMS. This will be a fee collected from the local service. Basically, trying to create a perpetual debt fund that would authorize the Cabinet to make payments on Medicare and Medicaid at the rate set by CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) every year. It will bring the Medicade rates up to the Medicare rates, but we will pay the money through services and divide back up. The problem is we have a high Medicaid population, but the call volume is low and we don’t have enough private payers to wash it out. It will cost us money. Tennessee is following suit and we will also have to deal with the Tennessee House and the Kentucky House,” Gunn said.