Putnam EMS Sees Lowest Write-Offs In Eight Years

Putnam County EMS write-offs were the lowest in eight years, sitting at some $647,438.

EMS Director Tommy Copeland said it is a pretty big number, but is typically pretty consistent. He said they typically give the same amount of money they have to write off annually.

“It’s more or less we’re providing a service and hoping somebody pays us afterward for that service, in some cases they don’t,” Copeland said. “They may be homeless, have no insurance, or have so much medical debt that they can pay the ambulance portion of the bill.”

Copeland said they started doing annual write-offs to clear the books when County Mayor Randy Porter was the EMS Director. He said the debt comes over the last several years and when it gets to a certain age they write it off the books. Copeland said debt collectors will keep it on the books for 10 years.

Porter said these write-offs are considered very small compared to places like Cookeville Regional, which could see millions of dollars in write-offs. Copeland said of the $647,000, they will get back probably less than one percent.

“By the time it gets to the point that it’s going to collections, this is older debt, they’ve already had multiple opportunities to pay, if there is insurance, we’d bill the insurance, et cetera et cetera, I’d say it’s going to be a very small number,” Copeland said. “I think overall looking at our collection agency, everything we send them at the fresh debt if you will the stuff that just happened, we’re looking at a 10 percent return by the time it gets to them that we might collect 10 percent or less.”