Ambulance service billing error affects many

More than a thousand Carson City residents last month were surprised - and angered, in some cases - when they received bills they didn't deserve for ambulance service.

Some of the services for which they were being billed had been paid years earlier. Other bills went to people enrolled in the city's ambulance program, CC Care. That program provides ambulance services to residents for an annual flat fee.

The group of residents enrolled in the fee program, said Vincent Pirozzi, the fire department's battalion chief in charge of emergency medical services, "should never even get bills."

All of the bills were a mistake, however, and corrections were mailed and should now be in possession of all who received the bills in error, Pirozzi said.

"I must have fielded a hundred calls myself," he said, estimating that 3,000 to 4,000 people received erroneous bills. "We had people calling the mayor."

Many of the people who received the bills are seniors living on fixed incomes, Pirozzi said. "It was very hard to explain the situation to those people."

The billing had been handled by the city until an office employee retired and the city decided not to hire a replacement. The job of billing for ambulance services was awarded to a contractor, Advanced Data Processing Inc., which is headquartered in Miami.

ADPI has been in the business of emergency medical service billing for more than 20 years and has done similar contract work for some neighboring communities, Pirozzi said.

Adding to some residents' anger: Calling the toll-free billing number for ADPI and not being able to get through because the company was inundated with inquiries, he said.

"Hopefully, nothing like this will happen again," Pirozzi added.

Pirozzi believes a renewed pursuit of unpaid balances inadvertently brought about the error. The contract with the city began in July and lasts five years. The city will be conducting annual performance reviews.

Though Pirozzi hopes the problem has been rectified, a local credit counselor advises people to hold on to their corrected bills and check their credit reports to ensure the mistaken debts don't continue to live on in computer databases.

"If anything pops up on their credit report, the credit bureau will see that it's the fault of the billing service and can correct it," said Natalie McKinnon, credit counselor for Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Northern Nevada.

Three national credit bureaus allow one free review each year. The service can be found at annualcreditreport.com or by calling 1-877-322-8228.

If you received an erroneous bill from ADPI for ambulance service but didn't receive a corrected bill, you should request a letter from the billing service that states that the debt was an error. The letter can be used as evidence to protect your credit history, she said.

"It's been corrected. We sent out corrected invoices to everyone." said Dan Kehoe, regional director of ADPI's Oakland, Calif., office. He estimates the number of erroneous bills sent to Carson residents to be closer to 1,500.

"Those who had a balance of zero received an apology," he said. "We are still pursuing some of the customers who have outstanding balances."

Kehoe doesn't believe any of the people erroneously billed would be referred to a collection agency because a debt must go through a series of checks first. He also emphasized, however, that ADPI would issue a letter explaining the billing situation if such a mistake did result.

-- Contact reporter Terri Harber at tharber @nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111, ext. 215.