Sycamore will soon have a new ambulance fee billing service provider, but don’t expect ambulance fees for residents to change.

Sycamore City Manager Michael Hall said the change will be cost-neutral for the city and shouldn’t impact Sycamore residents with or without insurance.

“If the person doesn’t have insurance, then if they’re a Sycamore resident, we do not go after the billing at all,” Hall said. “If they have insurance, we go to the insurance company and whatever they’ve negotiated that to be, we get that portion of it. If they’re a Sycamore resident, the rest is written off.”

There are four different types of bills that can be sent out following an ambulance ride. Those different billing formats pertain to whether someone has insurance, someone doesn’t have insurance, or if they’re insured through Medicaid or Medicare.

Hall said the city bills $3.5 million in ambulance fees a year, but collects about $1.4 million. That could now change, but Hall hasn’t shared how much additional revenue the city could bring in.

On Nov. 3, the Sycamore City Council voted 7-0 to approve a switch from Emergency Medical Services Management Consultants to One Billing Solutions (OBS) for the city’s ambulance billing services. In the motion to approve the change, Second Ward Alderman Mike Rodriguez added a clause that required OBS to have a minimum collection rate of 50%.

That nuance was added after City Attorney Keith Foster said OBS seemed flexible and that it was within the city’s right to ask for the minimum collection rate to be included in the service contract.

In an email on Tuesday, Hall said OBS had accepted the additional contract term. The contract will take effect on Jan. 1, Hall said. Fourth Ward Alderman David Stouffer, who voted in favor of the change and seconded Rodriguez’s motion to include a minimum collection rate, said the new contract doesn’t prevent city officials from changing their decision next year.

“My two cents on this is it’s a one-year contract, right, so they have one year to show us what they can do,” Stouffer said. “If it’s not exactly what we were hoping for, then we can go out to bid again.”

The existing contract with Emergency Medical Services Management Consultants will be terminated because city officials believe ongoing issues constitute a failure to provide the services contained within a Nov. 18, 2015, agreement with Andres Medical Billing, according to city documents.

In a letter regarding the termination of that agreement, Foster wrote that the city’s fire department, which operates the ambulances, was never notified that the contract with Andres Medical Billing had been assigned to Emergency Medical Services Management Consultants.

“Since EMS’s acquisition of AMB, the Fire Department has had minimal contact with EMS staff, and the majority of the communication that has taken place has had to be initiated by the City of Sycamore’s staff after receiving complaints from residents regarding billing problems,” Foster wrote.

He wrote that Sycamore residents have reported significant service issues, such as long call wait times, disconnected calls before reaching a live representative, instances of being billed for non-billable ambulance trips and billing codes with “continuous errors,” which resulted in insurance claim denials.

During the Nov. 3 City Council meeting, 2nd Ward Alderman Chuck Stowe said he dealt with the Emergency Medical Services Management Consultants while assisting an elderly Sycamore resident who had been told to go online for billing help.

“They weren’t very customer-friendly,” Stowe said.