Washington County Ambulance Service staff is getting an increase in pay and will be recouping revenues for Medicaid patient transports following action at the County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.

Old business was brought to the board to approve a three-year contract between the county and Public Consulting Group for a cost recovery program in which the county will get the 70% of ambulance fees returned that are usually written off by Medicaid, with a nine-percent contingency given to PCG. County Attorney John Gish approved language changes made to the contract, which the board approved, and is estimated to bring over $100,000 back to the ambulance annually.

Ambulance Director Jeremy Peck then brought a matrix showing wage increases for all of the ambulance staff, since the county-run service began in July of 2020 with all staff paid the starting wage regardless of experience. Peck said this is the second proposal he has made as the board of supervisors asked that he make one using the courthouse’s employee wage matrix rather than the ambulance’s. Including FICA and IPERS benefits, the proposal amounts to an increase of about $109,543 for the current fiscal year and about $146,057 annually.

Board Chair Richard Young voiced his concerns about how the county would pay for this bonus, noting that revenue from the Medicaid cost recovery won’t come for months. Excluding a wage adjustment for Peck and the coder and administrative assistant positions was suggested. Peck did not want to piecemeal the increases, “I’m done arguing it Richard. I’m standing up for my people, and if you want to run this ambulance service, you’ve done it for 20 years, the job’s yours because I’m not going to fight it anymore. I have to be responsible to my people and I have to be responsible to the citizens of this county and that’s what I’m doing. If you want to run it, I’m fine with that, tell me. I’ll go find somewhere where I can make more money.”

After about 40 minutes of discussion Supervisor Marcus Fedler motioned that they approve Peck’s proposal as presented, which the board approved unanimously.