Surprise bill scrambles budget

An unanticipated invoice was pulled from the bill list at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Moorcroft Council.

“We are being billed by Campbell County Hospital for patient intercept,” Councilman Paul Smoot explained his concern. “We have not yet received patient or transport information on that, but it is a legitimate bill for $299.”

Town Clerk/Treasurer Cheryl Schneider told the governing body that she had found the money to pay this bill in the ambulance budget.

“They didn’t have a lot so I took it out of their ‘medical supplies’,” she said.

Neither Mayor Ben Glenn nor Schneider recalled Campbell County billing the town for an intercept in their years of association. Councilman Dale Petersen asked if Moorcroft’s ambulance service, “did not do proper documentation so that it can be billed out to the patient versus us? Intercept, to me, that’s a patient responsibility.”

Smoot noted that on the actual bill, “The patient portion has been zeroed out so it’s a direct billing to our town.”

Possible reasons for this unprecedented situation were presented. Ambulance Board member Jesse Connally ventured a possible reason is the occasional practice of working on the side of caution.

“If it’s a problem that is above our skill level [or] if [the patient] is having more difficulties, we’ll call for transport just in case anything goes awry,” she said.

Petersen dismissed this theory, saying, “We’ve been doing that for years, but this is the first time we’ve seen a bill.”

His worry about future invoices arose, “Every time we do an intercept, we’re going to get a bill for that. Where is that money coming from?”

Connally is currently bringing the books to date for the ambulance department; when completed, Schneider will have a better of revenue, but at this time, “I can’t answer the question because I don’t know where we’re at on the billing.”

Schneider was asked to investigate the issue and report her findings to council before the CCMSD patient intercept bill is paid.