Director of Office of Financial Management explains that collection efforts will continue, nonetheless
During their regular meeting on Sept. 24, the Sarasota County commissioners voted unanimously to write off a total of $4,169,568.13 in “uncollectable accounts receivable for Emergency Services and Public Utilities,” as detailed in a county staff memo in the board’s agenda packet.
The item was part of the board’s Consent Agenda of routine business matters, but Chair Joe Neunder noted that it had been pulled for staff remarks.
He did not say who had pulled it. Any commissioner at any time can ask that a Consent Agenda matter be removed for discussion and a separate vote.
Kim Radtke, director of the county’s Office of Financial Management, came to the podium to explain that a county policy requires her department to write off “something that has been on our books as unreceivable after three years …” She stressed, “But this does not stop us from continuing to collect on that funding.”
She reiterated that point.
When Neunder asked whether any of his colleagues had questions for Radtke, none responded.
Commissioner Teresa Mast made the motion to approve the applicable resolution, and Commissioner Mark Smith seconded it. The motion passed 4-0, as Commissioner Ron Cutsinger was absent from the meeting.
The following information was included in the county staff memo as a summary of “the components of the resolution” that the board adopted:
- Emergency Services – Uncollectible Accounts Total $3,926,624.48: Emergency Medical Services Division requested write-off — $3,904,179.48; Fire Prevention & Training Division requested write-off — $22,445.
- Public Utilities – Uncollectible Accounts Total $242,943.65: Utility Account Management Billing requested write-off — $242,914.32; Water and Sewer Installment Loans requested write-off — $29.33.
A related document in the Sept. 24 agenda packet provided more details.
In regard to the Emergency Medical Services billing, the document said, “When patients have health insurance benefits, Sarasota County Emergency Services accepts payment from insurance as well as Medicare and Medicaid. In some cases, a deductible or co-payment is required directly from the patient after insurance payments and other allowable items have been reconciled. Patients without primary, secondary, or tertiary coverage are billed the entire amount. These outstanding liabilities may be difficult to collect because the responsible party died without an estate, filed for bankruptcy, could not be located or other reasons.”
The document added, “All delinquent accounts are turned over to a third-party collection agency. Collection efforts, including collection letters, repeated phone contacts, and the third-party collection agency reports accounts to credit reporting agencies Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, will continue beyond this write-off.
“Experience has shown that it takes roughly 24-months for accounts to be thoroughly processed,” the document continued. The 2025 fiscal year request for write-off “represents amounts due for services rendered from October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2023 (FY2023).”
Then, in accord with Radtke’s remarks to the commission, the memo noted, “Collection efforts for write-off accounts do not cease. Resolution No. 2024-164 approved $3,486,673.07 to be written off for FY2022 and since that time, the third-party billing agency and the collection agency have collected an additional $115,045.66.”
Further, the document reported that another facet of the Emergency Services write-off was for “EMS coverage for Special Events.” That amount, $11,385, represented unpaid fees billed in the 2023 fiscal year, the document added.
A write-off of $1,810 was needed for Fire Code Enforcement services for which bills were left unpaid during the 2022 fiscal year.
Yet another figure — $9,250 — represented invoicing for Fire Department services related to false alarms. The document explained, “[A] high incidence of false fire alarms [is related to] malfunctions [and] accidental or malicious activations of alarms,” which results in “a significant misuse of firefighters and resources of the County Fire Department …” The document pointed out that units dispatched in such situations means that they are available to respond to emergencies.
In regard to the write-off for the Public Utilities Department, the same document pointed out, “As with any utility system, a certain amount of revenue will be considered uncollectible” for the following reasons:
- Non-Payment of final billings.
- Bankruptcy.
- Death of the account holder, who left no estate.
The document added, “This loss is realized despite a systematic and diligent follow-up on every account, including monitoring write-off amounts remaining on utility records for future collections in the event the delinquent party returns to the utility system as a customer. In addition, Utilities implemented a lien search process which provides delinquent amounts due on properties to title companies prior to closing on property sales.”