1st Amendment 12/19/2007
DANNY L. KOLHAGE
CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT
DATE:
January 17, 2008
TO:
Suzanne A, Hutton
County Attorney
ATTN:
FROM:
Kathy M Peters
Executive Assistant ~
Isabel C. DeSantis. lJP
Deputy Clerk yV'
At the December 19, 2007, Board of County Commissioner's meeting the Board granted
approval and authorized execution of the following:
Ame:ndment to an lnterlocal Agreement with the Sheriffto allow the him to take over
responsibility of billing for air ambulance transport (Trauma Star) by utilizing the Sheriffs
abbreviated procurement procedures to contract with a new billing agency.
Enclosed is a duplicate original of the subject document for your handling. Should you
have any questions please do not hesitate to contact this office. Thank you.
cc: Finance
File~
FIRST AMENDMENT TO AIR AMBULANCE AGREEMENT
THIS FIRST AMENDMENT to Air Ambulance Agreement is entered this 19th day of
December, 2007, by and between the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners (County), the
Monroe County Sheriffs Office (Sheriff), and Global Sky Aircharter Corporation (Global).
WHEREAS, the parties entered into an agreement on July 19, 2006, to provide a cooperative
arrangement for use of County and Sheriff personnel and Global license for a rapid air transport
operation; and
WHEREAS, the County's pre-contracted agent for ground ambulance assumed the billing for
the operation without any amendment to the contract between that corporation and the County; and
WHEREAS, a low collection rate of about 13% caused the Sheriffs staff and the flight nurses
to conduct searches on old accounts to locate patients and/or insurance providers for same; and
WHEREAS, members of the County and Sheriff staffs have ascertained that through relatively
easy searches, the billing company could have obtained patient and insurance billing information
which was obtained only after the Sheriff personnel and the flight nurses did follow-up searches for
additional infonnation through the internet; and
WHEREAS, the interlocal agreement dated July 19, 2006, defined the "Contractor" as the
Sheriff and Global; and
WHEREAS, an improved collection percentage of Air Ambulance billing IS III the best
interests of the residents of and visitors to the County; now therefore
IN CONSIDERATION of the promises and covenants herein, the Parties agree as follows:
1. Section 2.1 shall be amended by adding the following paragraph:
As soon as possible after the approval of this first amendment, Sheriff shall utilize the Sheriff s
procurement procedures to search for and secure the services of an independent billing
company and third party collection service (Sub-Contractors) to conduct the billing for air
ambulance only and collection efforts for Part 135 Receivables. For this purpose, Sheriff and
a mechanism with the billing agency for air ambulance payments to be submitted to the County
in a manner that distinguishes those payments as air ambulance payments. Upon receipt of
documents for pending Part 135 receivables from the County's current ground ambulance
billing contractor, Sheriff shall be responsible for the transfer of such information to the Sub-
contractor(s). All proceeds collected shall be delivered to and deposited as directed by the
County Clerk.
1
2. Section 3.2 shall be amended to read:
County will cooperate with Contractor to the greatest degree possible, including entering into
such HIPAA Business Partnership Agreements as may be necessary to exchange information
between Fire Rescue staff and the Contractor and/or Sub-contractor.
3. Section 3.4 of the Agreement dated July 19, 2006, shall be amended by adding:
County shall, provide administrative support through the flight nurses and paramedics to
provide to Sheriff or its Sub-contractor(s) as much demographic and billing-related information
as they can obtain from patient, family, hospital, or other sources.
4. Section 3.6 of the Agreement dated July 19, 2006, shall be amended by adding the following
sentence:
County shall continue to provide billing support of the Fire Rescue administrative staff for Part
135 Recl:ivables until the Sheriffs billing agreement with Sub-contractor is implemented.
5. ARTICLE 18 - Review of Results, shall be added to the Agreement dated July 19, 2006, to
read as follows:
After the Sheriffs agreement with Subcontractor has been in place nine months, staff of the
Sheriff and County shall meet and review the results for purposes of strategizing as to the most
effective manner in which to continue the billing and collections for Part 135 Receivables.
6. All other provisions of the Agreement dated July 19, 2006, not inconsistent herewith shall
remain in full force and effect.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Parties hereto have caused these presents to be executed on
the date first above written.
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BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
OF MONROE COUNTY, FLORIDA
By:
~Chairperson
MON~COUNTY SHE4'S OFFICE
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By: I Ull..U' Ilt'
Richard D. Roth, Sheriff
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GLOB~~Y AIRCHART~~RATION
By: ..&:;../' olLt-( t-R
Richard D. Roth, President