MEXICO — The Med-Care Ambulance board of directors voted Dec. 14 to hold the line on its 2017 budget.
With eight of 11 directors present, the vote was unanimous for a $1.94 million budget, meaning the $24 per-capita rate will remain the same as the current year for the 11 towns representing the Northern Oxford Regional Ambulance Service.
“We basically do the whole budget, look at all the expenses, take into account the medical billing revenue, and see if it’s red or it is black, and if we have to do anything with the assessment,” Med-Care Executive Director Dean Milligan said. “Most generally, that’s kind of a taboo. We don’t want to touch that. We go back, sharpen our pencils and find where we can cut more expenses.
“Everyone’s doing due diligence to make sure we’re as frugal as we can be and try to be as accurate as we can be on projections,” he said. “With medical billing revenue, it depends on how many calls we go on. We’re just using historical data, but it’s totally out of our control. That’s 80-something percent of the revenue within our budget.”
Projected patient revenue totals $1.55 million of the budget, with town assessments totaling $377,208.
“The 2017 budget is basically where we feel we’re going to be at the end of ’16, with no major increases in ’17,” Milligan said. “We’re just hoping we can maintain the same level of business and the same level of revenue.”
The budget includes two changes:
• $46,000 for a newly established plan as part of the health insurance change to cover employee deductibles.
• Eliminating the $4,940 assistant director stipend and adding it into the hourly wages of the position.
Board President Steve Brown said Bob Chase and Reggie Arsenault played instrumental roles in going through this budget.
He said they are using the same total population figure from the last census, 15,717.
Town assessments are as follows: Andover, $19,440; Byron, $3,456; Canton, $22,608; Carthage, $13,512; Dixfield, $59,616; Hanover, $5,592; Mexico, $63,024; Newry, $7,872; Peru, $37,032; Roxbury, $8,784; and Rumford, $136,272.
Brown noted that in another 18 months or so, the towns will be voting on extending the interlocal agreement for another 10 years.
bfarrin@sunmediagroup.net
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