Commissioners eye WayneNET deficit
By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 1, 2018 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Wayne County Commissioner Joe Daughtery questions the cost of operating WayneNET -- the county's non-emergency transport service -- during the board's Thursday budget session.
Thursday's second round of budget deliberations by the Wayne County commissioners netted nearly $300,000 in cuts but also signaled the return to the pointed questioning of prior year sessions that were missing from Wednesday's budget meeting.
Commissioner Joe Daughtery led the barrage, questioning expenditures singling out several agencies including animal control and WayneNET -- the county's non-emergency transport service -- for attention.
Daughtery was particularly concerned about WayneNET's projected $1.75 million deficit.
However, Daughtery was told it is the first year that the WayneNET budget has been separate from the EMS budget.
"I have some real issues here," Daughtery said. "WayneNET was the bright spot. WayneNET was generating dollars to offset some of the expenses over in EMS."
But when the private Johnston Ambulance Service failed, the county decided to expand WayneNET to absorb that lost service, he said.
Daughtery said that he assumes from the growing pains associated with taking over the services previously handled by JAS that WayneNET turned from an asset to a liability.
"Here is why I say that," he said. "In this budget, we are transferring $745,000 from 110 general fund to pay toward the operations of WayneNET. That means, the way that I read it, that is three-quarters of a million dollars that we lost.
"But it was not only the three-quarters of a million dollars because you guys were making about a million dollars a year. So it is a $1.74 million swing, and the only thing I see that we did differently was we brought in an expanded NET to accommodate JAS. We have got to get this under control."
The county has to find out what it is doing right and what it is doing wrong and correct it, he said.
Director Nannette Suttons said that the year the county took over the former JAS services was the year that the federal government changed its rules regarding prior authorization for transporting patients.
Anyone transported three or more times a week, or once week for three weeks straight is considered a repetitive patient, she said.
The prior authorization paperwork for Medicare cannot be sent in any earlier than 48 hours before the trip starts, and it can take Medicare 10 to 21 days to respond, Sutton said.
"If we get it back and they have affirmed it, we are in the clear," she said. "If they have not, I have to stop all transport because nobody is going to pay me or pay Wayne County or WayneNET for this trip.
"Therefore we have to bill the patients. So that is where part of the issue is. The patients we carry can't pay."
That explanation has opened Pandora's box, Daughtery said.
The county is going to make a decision because if that is the requirement then the county needs to find another private company to take over the non-emergency transport business, he said.
The reason is that WayneNET is adding cost to Wayne County taxpayers, Daughtery said.
WayneNET had been an asset, but has turned into a liability for the county, he said.
"My point being that we can't afford to lose three quarters of a million dollars to a million dollars a year to subsidize non-emergency transport," Daughtery said. "It is already a big strain on us just to provide EMS services.
"We can't provide the other as well."
Sutton said projected revenues for ambulance trips only were $1,150,041 for this budget year.
As of April 30, WayneNET had collected $1,693,132, she said.
Revenue for wheelchair transports was projected at $28,445, but so far $43,840 has been collected, she said.
However, as good as that is, the department's $2.8 million in expenses are still greater than its $1.7 million in revenues, Daughtery said.
Non-emergency transportation is not a mandated service, whereas EMS is, he said.
"As such, whether we like this or not, if it is not mandated, it needs to stand on its own, and if it can't, then a decision has got to be made whether you continue it," Daughtery said.
However, Commissioner Wayne Aycock said that EMS and WayneNET have to be separated long enough for the county to find out the costs.
"I think that one thing that we as a board and a community have to decide is this a service," County Manager Craig Honeycutt said. "Is there somebody who would step up to the pate because this is definitely a needed service within our community."
There are such services running all over eastern North Carolina, Daughtery said.
"I understand what you are saying Mr. Daughtery, but it (WayneNET) is my passion," Sutton said as her voice cracked with emotion.
Having home folks doing the job makes a difference, she said.
"This is a service to our citizens who deserve the service," Commissioner Ed Cromartie said.
Commissioner Ray Mayo asked how surrounding counties handle the service.
They contract it out, Sutton said.
Sutton said that as far as she knows, Wayne County is the only one handling the service on a local level.
"I am not ready to give up on WayneNET because I remember what we said at the beginning," Commissioner John Bell said. "That it is going to be providing a service for the people of Wayne County.
"I know it is some heartburn for some of us because we look at the dollars and cents, but sometimes when you go to do things as a government for your citizens you may not make the dollars that you wanted to make."
But the county is providing a service for people in need, he said.
"I think we need to try everything in our power to try and make it work," he said.