Revenue Management Unit became responsible for billing ambulance transportation services and collecting the fees. The objective of the audit was to assess the unit s practices for billing and collecting fees from commercial insurance companies and self-pay patients. Though Ambulance Call Reports, the source documents needed to generate bills, are pre-numbered for control purposes, there are no established procedures for monitoring how ambulance staff uses them or whether they are returned. It can take up to eight months for an Ambulance Call Report to be recorded in the billing computer system. Although the FDNY experiences about a 5 percent rate of undeliverable addresses for its self-pay bills about 400 every week no action is taken to obtain change of address information from the Postal Service.
People move, insurance companies have deadlines, policies can lapse.
The flaws in the department s procedures are inhibiting a timely billing process. And, in some instances, the department may not be issuing bills for transport at all. Copies of the dunning letters are not kept on file. Contrary to City policy, no official authorized that the accounts be written off or reviewed the accounts to determine if, in fact, they were uncollectible. This is a vital service that every New Yorker counts on.