Revenue recovery still receiving fine tuning in Augusta

Revenue recovery for rescue squads might be inevitable in Augusta County, but ironing out the details is delaying its implementation.

Augusta County supervisors earlier this month tabled an enabling ordinance that would allow rescue squads to charge for their services.

A volunteer consultant has estimated the annual gross revenue from collection to be about $1 million.

Other issues to be sorted out include the cost of collection, how the money would be distributed to the rescue squads, and what the impact will be on the fundraising for rescue squads.

Supervisors and administrators say that funding needs to be equitable.

Pastures Supervisor Tracy Pyles, who unveiled his own plan for revenue recovery this past week, said funding needs to be based on how much respective rescue squads are now receiving from the county.

The upcoming fiscal year includes slightly more than $450,000 in straight budget contributions to county rescue squads, including those located just across the county border that answer county calls in places such as Wintergreen and Fairfield.

The preliminary plan is for the recovery money to be placed in an emergency services fund.

And while Stuarts Draft has a large volume of calls among county rescue squads, it then becomes a question of how the money it generates is distributed.

Riverheads Supervisor Nancy Sorrells said a smaller call volume rescue squad like Deerfield “will have to get a cut of Stuarts Draft’s monies.”

“It becomes an umbrella. We have to look at all needs across the county,” she said.

Even collecting money for emergency services likely won’t eliminate the need for fundraising, said Gordon Barlow, of Augusta County, who has provided volunteer consultant work on revenue recovery billing for both the Waynesboro First Aid Crew and the Staunton-Augusta Rescue Service.

Barlow, who has worked on more than 40 revenue recovery implementations across Virginia, said the vast majority of money collected comes from insurance billing.

And Barlow’s experience is that those who owe money after insurance “may send three or four times that much because they want to donate.”

The Waynesboro First Aid Crew is now more than three years into revenue recovery.

Chief George Maupin said the Waynesboro crew no longer actively fundraises, but it generates a large call volume.

Last year, the Waynesboro First Aid Crew answered 5,189 calls.

One of the issues for the Waynesboro First Aid Crew is what will happen once Augusta County starts revenue recovery.

Under the current scenario, the Waynesboro First Aid Crew generates about 30 percent of its calls annually in Augusta County, including a service area of Afton, Lyndhurst, Sherando, Hermitage, Crimora and Fishersville.

The First Aid Crew directly bills for those services.

Maupin said he is seeking clarification on how the billing would be handled once Augusta County implements revenue recovery.

“We would like to know from our standpoint how this will impact our agency,” he said.

Maupin said the First Aid Crew continues to get support from the Waynesboro city government to pay its fuel, electricity and water costs.

And he says the community, both in the city and in Augusta County “has been very supportive of us” since revenue recovery started.