Commission OKs pay boost for night ambulance crews

Cole County government bought a gravel downtown parking lot Tuesday for $141,000.

The three-member County Commission also approved a $2-per-hour pay differential for ambulance employees who work the night shift, a new billing clerk for the Health Department and changes to county employees' health insurance.

The commission unanimously approved buying the parking lot - a quarter-block space on the northeast corner of Adams and McCarty streets, just east of the jail - from the Missouri Baptist Convention.

Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told his colleagues: "We can use it for a parking lot right now and for future expansion. Twenty years from now, we can build something on it."

After the meeting, Bushman said: "You've got to look ahead to the future - and we do need more parking because we're paying the city thousands of dollars a year for parking spots."

He said the gravel lot provides more parking options for people doing business at the courthouse or the jail and ultimately gives the county options to expand facilities while keeping county government located in the downtown area.

On a 2-1 vote, with Commissioner Kris Scheperle voting against, the commission approved paying an extra $2 per hour for "only those 20 people on the night shift," EMS Director Jerry Johnston told the commission.

As an example, Johnston said, a paramedic starts at $17.28 an hour but would make $19.28 an hour if assigned to the night shift.

The change comes as the ambulance service moves away from 24-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts for emergency services personnel. Johnston added shift assignments generally are permanent.

"We don't rotate (shifts) like the sheriff's department does," he explained. "(This will) help create more consistent shifts and help us with recruiting."

The county's EMS service has 105 employees, Bushman noted.

The service has been working with a combination of 12- and 24-hour shifts, and the commission in August approved doing away with the day-long work as a response to an increasing volume of calls being handled by the same-size staff.

"Not everybody wants to work at night and sleep during the day," so the $2/hour differential is an enticement to work on the night shift, Bushman said.

He added: "We're still below the pay of some of the ambulance districts around us, and this will make us more competitive."

The pay changes won't affect customers' costs for ambulance calls.

Commissioners approved a Cole County Health Department request to replace a clerk's position with a "billing specialist," who could submit claims to insurance companies for Health Department services such as flu shots.

Currently, Director Kristi Campbell told commissioners, "a lot of health departments are having success in billing private health insurance for things like" flu shots.

Under the current practice, she explained, the county is paid $12 for a shot - then the company providing the medicine seeks its own reimbursement from insurance providers.

As an example of success with the change, she said, "Audrain County increased their revenue by about $50,000," by sending its own bills.

Commissioners agreed to try the idea for at least a year.

The commission also approved changes to employees' health insurance, raising an individual's cost for emergency room visits to a $300 minimum and changing prescription co-pays from a flat rate to a 10 percent charge.

Bushman noted the county pays more than $600 a month for each employee covered, so there is already a good benefit for those employees - although some area employers might have better benefits.

"We have good employees, and we want to keep those employees," he said. "We want them to stay with us, and we want to be as generous as we can be."

Scheperle said county officials should work to get more employees - currently about 18 percent - into health savings accounts, which have higher deductibles but cost the county less money.

"That's an individual thing," Bushman said. "I think most people stay with just the regular insurance, where you've got your $30 deductible and you know what you're going to pay for prescriptions."