On a divided three to two vote, the Corsicana City Council voted Tuesday to change the company that does ambulance and EMS billing for the city.

Citing problems with his father’s ambulance bills, Councilman Stephen Andrews, precinct 3, proposed changing from Southwest General Services of Dallas to Alexander Billing and Consultants of San Antonio.

The city has been with Southwest for the past six years, and the Fire Chief Donald McMullan recommended staying with Southwest.

“They’re like everybody else, they’ve had problems, and we’ve had problems, but what’s important to us is that they’ve addressed our concerns,” McMullan said in a work session with the council prior to the regular meeting.

Alexander will get 6 percent of revenues collected below $131,000, and 6.75 percent on billing above that.

Southwest was getting 7 percent of collections, and revenues to the city were about $116,000 a month, according to Kristin Canbron with Alexander, who examined 2007 and 2008 records.

Scott Fothergill, chief executive officer with Southwest, who also attended Tuesday’s meeting, said the company collects about $131,000 a month for the city.

Six companies actually asked for the contract, including Quality Billing Services of Corsicana, which is owned by Ann Massey. Massey argued that her company would be more responsive because it’s local, and would have a better system of pre-auditing claims to prevent rejections by insurance and Medicare.

Most of the competitors were eliminated because of concerns about their software, or that they didn’t have the ability to pursue delinquent collections, or didn’t have wireless patient care reporting.

Going with Alexander will mean EMS employees will have to learn new software, but Alexander offered to waive the 6 percent fee until it has gotten up to speed and is collecting at least as much as Southwest was collecting, on average, Canbron said. The Alexander representative said her company expects to be able to collect at least $15,000 more per month than Southwest.

Alexander has 12 years of billing experience and 32 people in its collection department.

Voting against the measure were Randy Dill, precinct 4, and Tom Wilson, precinct 1. Dill said he hadn’t had enough time to examine the proposals. Council members were given a spreadsheet of the six proposals about 20 minutes before going into the council meeting.

In the work session, Dill asked if the city would save money by going with another company, even one that charged an additional 25 percent on delinquent bills, and no one could answer that question.

Andrews said he thought it would be beneficial for the city to explore other options, and that it’s a good idea to look at other options for any contractor.

“My biggest concern was the total bad debt we were writing off each year,” he said, citing a figure in excess of $1 million a year.

Dance hall/social hall decision delayed

The Corsicana City Council did not take action on a proposed ordinance to regulate dance halls and social halls in the city. The issue would bring a new group of event halls under city regulation, including the Kinsloe House, Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, Navarro County Youth Expo, as well as quasi-night-club places like Mombassa downtown.

In the work session before the meeting, a recommendation was made to change the definition of a social hall to any place whose primary business is renting the hall for special events, which would leave out the hotels and bed and breakfasts. A recommendation was also made to limit the hours during which a social/dance hall could operate, forcing them to close by 1:30 a.m. The corrected version will be brought back to the council on Oct. 21.



Fire station land considered

The council also authorized the city manager, Connie Standridge, to begin negotiations to buy 44 acres of land next to the former Corsicana Nursing Home on North 45th Street, near Corsicana High School.

The property could be used for a new fire station, a fire-training facility and possibly a baseball/softball complex, Standridge said.

The city already owns the nursing home property, which sits on 1.7 acres. It was donated to the city by the Dream Center. In exchange for the land, the city had to remove the asbestos and demolish the damaged building. The city has estimated it will need more property to house a fire station than it already has.



Speed limit changed

The speed limit on the stretch of McKnight Lane from Emhouse Road to Fish Tank Road, which runs in front of Fullerton-Garrity Park, was changed from 30 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour Tuesday. The change is in keeping with the speed zone through Community Park.



Demo order repealed

The council also voted to repeal a demolition order for the house at 124 S. 34th St. The order had been made by the planning and zoning commission in July, but the owner came in and got renovation permits and repaired the house, bringing it all up to code.



Codes changed

Two changes were made to the city’s codes Tuesday: The definition and zoning for an animal service facility was added to the zoning chart, and fees for testing, retesting and inspecting fixes on backflow prevention equipment was added to the list of city fees.



Rogers reappointed health authority

Dr. Kent Rogers, who heads up the Navarro County Health Department, was reappointed the city’s local health authority.

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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com