By Chris Meyers
Staff writer

     With a large projected deficit in the next few years for Whitley County EMS, county government is trying to find solutions to the problem.
     EMS is currently funded through the County Economic Development Income Tax, but so are many other departments and services.
     “As these expenses get higher and higher in EMS, we can’t pay for it with CEDIT,” said Mike Schrader, county commissioner.
     By 2011, EMS is expected to have a budget of $615,000 a year, which is about half the county’s CEDIT money.
     Council member Jim Banks said he favored spending CEDIT funds on EMS costs rather than for some abatements and business incentives that have received CEDIT money.
     Taxes, user fees and an increase in the county’s 911 fee are some ideas being considered by the county council.
     Council member Kim Wheeler said he was in talks with local state legislators to see what steps the county would need to take before it could implement any new fees or taxes specifically for EMS.
     The county needs to make sure it can take money from the 911 account to pay for other services.
Council member Bill Overdeer mentioned the possibility of putting an EMS user fee on property tax statements, similar to how residents pay for recycling service.
     Regardless of which option may be the most viable, commissioners and council are hesitant to increase fees or taxes imposed on residents.
     “Any tax you pay comes out of someone’s income,” Overdeer said.
     “I don’t like to increase taxes either, but we’re charged by statute to provide EMS,” Schrader said.
     Also on the table is a proposal for Whitley County EMS to respond to Big and Crooked lakes in Noble Township.
     Duane Ginder, EMS director, said there would be a “marginal” increase in cost, but the contract could bring enough money into the system to offset those increases.
     The change would also mean a faster response to time to residents at those lakes whose ambulances are stationed farther away than those in Columbia City.
     “We’re trying to get an ambulance as quickly as possible to people,” Ginder said.
     Playing havoc with costs are ambulance runs that don’t result in a patient being transported because bills are not sent even if services and equipment are used at the location of the emergency.
     Often times, insurance companies will not pay for ambulance services and the person billed may not pay either. Each run costs about $480.
     “All this that we’re talking about is insurance companies won’t pay,” Ginder said.
     Also in the mix are Medicare and Medicaid patients transported by ambulance because those insurance options do not pay the full bill for an ambulance transport.
     Ginder said 70 percent of calls are Medicare and Medicaid patients, and that the other 30 percent of runs can’t make up the difference.
     County council members hope to have at least one state legislator at a future meeting to help discuss options.
     “We have to stop being reactionary to the budget,” Ginder said.

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