By By Steve Swogetinsky/The Meridian Star
APRIL 3, 2001
QUITMAN A computer problem with Medicare billing has Paratech Ambulance Service in a financial squeeze, and its owner is looking to the Clarke County Board of Supervisors for help.
Dewayne Crane told supervisors during their Monday board meeting the ambulance business had not received a payment from Medicare since the start of the year.
He asked the supervisors if they would give Paratech a month's advance on their supplement from the county to see them through hard times. Supervisors took the matter under advisement.
The board began partially subsidizing Paratech more than two years ago at the rate of $4,100 a month. The company, which once ran an ambulance service in both Clarke and Wayne counties, has since downsized considerably because of cuts in Medicare payments in the last four or five years.
Paratech now only operates in Clarke County, operating a 24-hour-a-day service with two vans.
Steve Swogetinsky is regional editor of The Meridian Star. E-mail him at sswogetinsky@themeridianstar.com.