Tennessee Ambulance Service Association
Meeting Minutes
July 12, 2012
President Ward called the meeting to order at 10:10 a.m. Board Members present: Brandon Ward President, Chad Graham Vice President, Chuck Latimer Secretary, Derek Merritt WTG, John Fitzsimmons MTG, John Combes Region 3, Ricky Slack Region 4. Other members present: Joseph Rike MFD, Allen Lovett Williamson Medical Center, Brian Smith AEL, Keith Douglas Sumner County EMS, Robert Byrd AEL, Doug McQuary First Call Vandy Lifeflight, Donna Tidwell State EMS, Debbie Cox State EMS, Jimmy Edwards Montgomery County EMS.
June 7th meeting minutes were read. Motion by Fitzsimmons, second by Slack, all approved.
President Ward reported that Treasurer Billingsley still has major back problems and is unable to travel.
Treasurers report was read, we have $8927.88. We still have not paid McMahon and Winstead. Our dues still have not been sent out due to illnesses at Henry County EMS. There was much discussion. President Ward is going to obtain our current membership and get those sent out ASAP. Motion to approve Treasurer’s report by Merritt, second by Slack, all approved.
VP Graham made a motion that TASA purchase Quick Books as time allowed to streamline our accounting process, especially with getting dues and conference fees in and out, second by Fitzsimmons. There was much discussion. Keith Douglas stated that their fee for this was only around $10 – $20 per month. All voted in favor.
Donna Tidwell gave the state EMS report. She has asked the Ambulance Committee to review the NFPA standards. There are major changes with great increases in costs for new units. The Southeast State EMS Directors are reviewing these as well. Tennessee has a regional representative on the NFPA committee, we need to locate this person and express our concerns. The thought is that if these pass, this will cause providers to keep much older ambulances on the road much longer, thereby causing unsafe conditions.
The rules voted on at the EMS board meeting on 6-20-12 have come out of the Governors office. Lucy Bond is retiring and the EMS Division does not have a full time attorney assigned to them yet by the OGC. The Ambulance Committee is also looking into a new law that will allow the State EMS office to grant service licenses that are late, up to 60 days, with a late filing fee added. Right now services that are late have to go through the entire reinstatement process with causes them to pay full fees.
Currently the State office is beginning the process for a new Assistant Director. They are also looking to fill the vacant position for Region 3 consultant.
Donna also reported on the Vent class. This was setup for services to meet a certain Medicare requirement. Many services do not realize that this requires an annual two hour update. One member service in Tennessee has to repay Medicare a reported 13 million dollars in fines. She also reported for those services that use EMS Consultants to upload their data into EMITS, there is a glitch in their system.
John Fitzsimmons reported on the Awards Committee and that it was time to purchase the trophies. Motion by Slack, second by Latimer to purchase these now, all approved. John initially pays for these out of his pocket.
There was another lengthy discussion on not charging true volunteer services for TASA dues, or that we discount their membership. The discussion was on what constitutes a volunteer service and how many are there actually? After much discussion, a motion to table this until August was made by Merritt, seconded by Slack, until we could find the above information.
There was much discussion on accepting advertisements on the TASA website. Currently we do not know if this is allowable. John Fitzsimmons discussed the possibility of setting up a foundation which would allow TASA to accept certain dollars to be used for certain things. This could not be used for lobbying and certain other things.
Doug McQuary reported on the Mid Winter conference that the agenda is mostly complete. We are still looking for a keynote speaker and they are very costly. The Hotel is ready.
Billing Conference has not been finalized. President Ward reported that Mike Shankle is the Chairman of that committee, and is supposed to have a conference call within days with those committee members. At this point, we do not have any details.
Donna Tidwell discussed the possibility of moving the Medical Directors conference to a smaller venue in the middle of the State due to the physician’s wishes.
President Ward reported that TASA is pursuing being able to assist member services in getting the required amount of pediatric hours. The plan is doing this via webcast. This will have to be approved by the state EMS office.
There again was much discussion on the exact meaning of the new education requirements. The thought was that all hours being used for renewing one’s license, had to be taught by an I/C. Most in attendance thought that certain classes such as ACLS, PALS, and PHTLS were okay as long as they were taught by an approved instructor.
There were several attendees at the Mid Winter conference that attended and received CEU’s before they had paid. A motion was made by John Combes to not issue CEU’s until TASA has received payment. It was seconded by Fitzsimmons, and all voted in favor.
A motion was made and approved to not further oppose the June 20th rulemaking.
Under New Business there was a significant amount of discussion as why the Department of Health is able to sponsor the Rural Health Association of TN, and the Star of Life Awards and not TASA. No motions were made however.
The TASA Logo committee showed their final two recommendations; one logo was voted on and approved by members present. This was a motion by Combes and seconded by Fitzsimmons, all approved. It is basically the logo that is on the license plate. There were too many versions of our logo “floating†around, so this committee was appointed by the President to narrow it down to one.
The next meeting will be determined by President Ward, as the regularly scheduled one, conflicts with Election Day.
A motion to adjourn was made at 13:32.