Audit Blasts City’s Failure to Collect Ambulance Fees

Los Angeles’ system for collecting ambulance fees is so ineffective that the city has failed to collect tens of millions of dollars for services provided by city paramedics and firefighters, the city controller said Tuesday.

Controller Rick Tuttle, in a written review of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s ambulance billing system, said the city in recent years has spent about $57 million each year to provide emergency medical services--but has collected an annual average of about $14 million.

As of June, the city had more than $106 million in outstanding accounts, of which it expected to collect about $8 million, the report said.

Fire Chief William R. Bamattre said he could not comment on the report, which he said he received Tuesday and had not yet read.

By overhauling its collection system and raising rates, the report said, the city would collect $10 million more each year. Auditors also said the city could be collecting more from Medicare and Medi-Cal as well as private insurance companies.

The report describes a system in disarray.

Rescue crews at times submit tardy, incomplete reports that are not promptly followed up for billing, auditors found. The computer system will not generate a bill from an incomplete report.