Jill Brown
Legal Services
275 East Main Street
5W-B
Frankfort, KY 40601
Dear Jill,
As President of the Kentucky Ambulance Providers Association I
am respectively requesting a hearing be held concerning the
deletion of the Medicaid Disposable Medical Supplies
Coding which went in to effect July 1, 2005.
This has caused great concern among many providers in the
Commonwealth. The inability to bill for such services will
drastically reduce revenue for services that are already
struggling.
We were pleased about the recent rate negotiation and feel it
was a positive step forward, but seems that for everything that
we gain, we lose somewhere else. This elimination of the Disposable
Billing Codes was never once mentioned in any of our
negotiations. Medicaid gives a little, but then
takes more away. Many providers are no better off after
the base rate and mileage increase due to this fact. This
is not the desired end result.
One reason we were able to see a slight increase in our
Fee Schedule was due to the fact that KAPA as an organization
was able to work with key people in the KY State Legislature and
find monies in the budget to supplement the federal portion.
This was to allow Medicaid to give EMS providers of this state
the first real rate increase since 1985. With this ruling
that has all but gone out the window.
Compared to many other types of providers in the state, we as
ambulance providers ask very little from Medicaid. We are
not a large part of your budget as compared to other medical
services. We are happy and look forward to working with
you to resolve this issue.
This decision will have adverse effects on EMS systems in this
state. Again, a hearing would at least give the opportunity
for both sides to work together to come to a
reasonable resolution.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely-
