Government : Benton County Board of Supervisor Minutes EOC - April 1, 2025

April 1, 2025

A joint meeting between the Board of Supervisors and the EMS Advisory Council met on April 1, 2025 at 6:08 p.m. at the EOC at the Sheriff's Office. Supervisor Seeman, Tippett and Volz were all three in attendance.

The Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council has been meeting monthly over the past year to focus on ensuring the EMS tax dollars are being utilized properly and distributed equitably among the service providers.

Assistant County Attorney Derek Marsh was invited to join and provide some legal background and explained how establishing some procedures to help on being more compliant. This is still a new service state wide and more and more counties are trying to get it passed. Marsh also mentioned how things could change yearly on how this is supposed to operate. Most recently learning that Salaries and wages may now be included in the approved uses. Marsh has been working with Auditor Rippel to help define a list of approved uses along with reporting and reimbursement procedures along with the possibility of creating some 28E agreements with the outside agencies for mutual aid.

Debate was had how to fairly distribute the revenue to EMS agencies along with including those out of the county services who assist in responding to calls within Benton County. Considering factors were: population served, call volumes and geographical coverage. Identifying the underserved areas and determining how funding could help improve response times and coverage was a lengthy discussion. The calls per service amount of $300 was brought up again after previous meetings. This might be too big of an amount referring to what a normal call gets paid after the billing process, it is around $225. Ben Darling, representing Blairstown Ambulance Service explained how the transports are legally able to bill for services. Some calls they donate time and supplies and don't get reimbursement. The clock starts once that ambulance starts transporting the patient. This was an eye opener to the non EMS providers present. Anna DeMuth, North Benton Ambulance Director invited the Supervisors to take the time and go around and meet with some of the services one on one and ask questions along with listening to the concerns and here how they all operate.

Anna Demuth shared a handout for homework for all entities to take the time and fill out. Demuth would like the history over the past few years on statistics for calls and assists. This could help with the determination if they decide to pay out on a per call basis in the future. The council will skip a month and meet again in June. For the time being, proceed as we have been by submitting claims to the Auditor's office with the required forms and invoices.

Volz moved//Tippett seconded: To adjourn at 7:15 p.m. Motion carried.

_______________________________

Tracy Seeman, Chairman

ATTEST: _________________________________

Hayley Rippel, Benton County Auditor