Title
A Resolution Of The City Commission Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Approving And Authorizing The Appropriate City Officials To Execute A Seventh Amendment To The Agreement With Advanced Data Processing, Inc. For Emergency Medical Transport Billing And Collection Services And The Provision Of Third Party EPCR Software Program Services For A One Year Term; Approving And Authorizing The Appropriate City Officials To Execute A Master Subscription And License Agreement With ESO Solutions, Inc. And The Required Business Associate Agreement In Connection With The Services To Be Provided By Advanced Data Processing, Inc.
Strategic Plan Focus
Public Safety
Body
Staff Recommends: Approval of the attached Resolution.
Explanation:
The Department of Fire Rescue and Beach Safety has been providing emergency ambulance treatment and transport services to the citizens of Hollywood since the late 1970’s. Since then, the nature and scope of these services has evolved from simple Basic Life Support (BLS) medical care and transport to today’s Advanced Life Support (ALS) medical care including trauma, cardiac arrest, overdose, OBGYN and pediatric complex medical protocols. Transport services are ruled under strict State and Federal laws, regulations and medical oversight. These medical and transport services are provided to all residents and visitors, regardless of medical insurance status or ability to afford the cost of the services.
As the national EMS information collection standards evolved throughout the years, all EMS agencies have been mandated to standardize their collection and reporting methods to meet national EMS database known as NEMSIS, the National EMS Information System. On the State level, the Florida Prehospital EMS Tracking and Reporting System (EMSTARS) program was created to provide for the collection and transmission of electronic incident level data from EMS Providers to The Florida Department of Health. EMS Providers who participate in data exchange with the Florida Department of Health and the EMSTARS database must adhere to all the policies and reporting requirements stipulated in subsection 64J-1.014(1), F.A.C.
Historically, our department has experienced a marked increase in call volumes and demand for EMS services and transports. The original transport billing methods and processes were performed by the Memorial Healthcare System and by the early 2000’s, the City decided to rely on the services of billing and collection vendors due to the large amount of transactions and complexities of Medicare, Medicaid, Private Insurance and Self Pay methodologies.
The department has utilized the services of Advanced Data Processing Inc. (ADPI) for emergency medical transport billing and collection services for longer than anticipated as the needs of the department have evolved throughout time. ADPI has been the current vendor for the aforementioned billing and collection services since 2006 and in 2015 the department agreed to have ADPI provide consulting services for Revenue Recognition and to enroll in the Florida EMS PEMT (Public Emergency Medical Transports) Medicaid program, and provide ongoing consulting/costing services for both the Florida CPE (Certified Public Expenditures) PEMT and the IGT (Intergovernmental Transfer) PEMT which includes Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCO) transports revenue programs.
The Department of Fire Rescue and Beach Safety endeavors to enter into a short term agreement as the Seventh Amendment to the Rescue Ambulance Billing & Related Professional Services Agreement. This agreement will be entered between the City of Hollywood as a third party business associate and Advanced Data Processing, Inc. as the billing company for Emergency Rescue and Transport Services and ESO Solutions Inc. for the provision of Emergency Patient Care Reporting (EPCR) software. The EPCR software, configures the reporting data as per the State and National requirements of data collection and reporting.
The Department is in dire need of moving forward with overdue software and hardware upgrades for the purpose of data collection for Emergency Medical Services reports in order to gain compliance with mandated State and Federal Emergency Medical reporting laws and standards. The current billing company has provided our department the flexibility of an all-inclusive billing service, patient records management and custodial services and the hardware and software required for crafting our EMS patient care reports.
The existing software system, will soon be obsolete and is out of compliance with the aforementioned State and Federal reporting mandates and unsupported by current technology. The new software component of this agreement will provide the ability to become compliant with the aforementioned laws as well as provide the benefits of EMS data management and analysis by identifying trends such as increased community medical needs, infectious disease outbreaks and localized transport trends amongst others. The data tracking and analysis component will assist the department in the efficient planning and allocation of our EMS resources to better serve our citizens
By entering into this agreement, we will become a third party business associate with software user rights and ownership which allows the flexibility of transferring this software as we enter into any upcoming billing and collections agreement or process as well as providing the immediate needs of hardware for all of our Advanced and Basic Life Support units in the City.
Some of the benefits of entering into this agreement will be the addition of 20 Panasonic CF 20 Laptop computers for all of our front line ALS and BLS units as compared with the previous sixteen units. The addition of four extra Laptops will assist our department with the capturing of all basic life support and advanced life support reports as well as all calls for assistance such as lift assist, calls for service or calls for assistance.
As part of this agreement, the software module related to Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD) will provide continuity between the Rescue Company electronic health records (EHR) and the Engine Company National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS). This facilitates for compliance for both Rescue and Engine reporting for State and Federal levels.
The cost of an all-inclusive hardware and software provision comes at an increase from the previous 1.75% fee to a 3.25% fee for product pricing for this short term agreement. This increase is the result of an eighteen month agreement versus a three year agreement. The longer period allows for a spreading out of the costs which, are also higher for new hardware, more hardware, and the more expensive software. The department studied the acquisition of our own software licensing use, hardware for all frontline units, warranty, upgrades as well as service agreements, and found this agreement will allow us to achieve our most immediate and pressing needs in the most expedient manner.
Additionally, this agreement was negotiated to reduce the contingency fees from the previous 15% to a 12% of net collections. This agreement has been crafted in order to provide an appropriate span of time that will allow our EMS Branch to seek the best custom solution moving forward, via either a request for proposal and/or an in house process for billing and collections services to suit our department’s unique and intricate needs for the provision of EMS services.
Fiscal Impact:
This agreement for emergency transport billing generates net revenue of approximately $4,000,000 for the City. The fee for collections under the proposed current agreement cannot exceed $200,000. This is an increase of $118,000 from the prior agreement’s not to exceed amount of $82,000. The increase is a result of the shortened term of the agreement and additional software costs.
Funding for this agreement is available in account number 001.215001.52200.631170.000000.000.000.
Recommended for inclusion on the agenda by:
Analdy Garcia, Deputy Chief of Administration
Rodolfo Jurado, Fire Chief
George R. Keller, Jr., CPPT, Deputy City Manager