Susan Delsandro is our Director of Customer Care and Compliance. She leads the Scheduling and Dispatch departments while overseeing the Billing and Compliance. Her focus is on streamlining the processes and maintaining accuracy and efficiency. Susan is a Certified Ambulance Coder and annually attends recertification classes held by the National Academy of Ambulance Coders as well as Medicare Learning Network events and Medical Transportation Association conferences.
Susan was selected to be one of five panelist on the Billing Track called, "Getting Your Bills Paid in the Era of High Deductible Health Plans Under the ACA" during the American Ambulance Association (AAA) 2014 Annual Conference and Tradeshow hosted in Las Vegas, NV. Susan has developed our current billing system design to safeguard maximum appropriate collection of revenue from all payer sources and established policies and procedures required for effective billing and collection processes.
The panel discussed the fee for service model in the U.S and how cost shifting from the uninsured and over utilization has led to a very high insurance cost. "From the provider perspective, High Deducible Health Plans pose a big risk. More and more consumers are choosing these plans in favor of the lower out of pocket monthly costs, in some cases not realizing that they have large deductibles," Susan responded to Mr. Scanell. "One of the ways On Time has adapted is by requiring another payment source from patients with these plans when accepting non-emergency transport. We inform the patient ahead of time, as best we can, what their financial responsibility may be after the insurance provider processes the claim. We have had to become better at understanding all different coverage plans from many different insurance companies".
During the conference Susan was able to participate and hear directly from members of the AAA's policy team about the efforts of the AAA on comprehensive ambulance relief and reform. Panels discussed the latest on the Medicare ambulance add-on payments, the CMS pilot program on prior authorization for repetitive non-emergency BLS ambulance transports and the proposed collection of ambulance cost data.
Our commitment to staying informed about our industry and joining the discussion has led to our success for the last 25 years. On Time Ambulance Billing Department has developed procedures to manage our collections more efficiently. Together, our team has created a process for CMS's Pilot Prior Authorization Program which has been very effective.