Jeb Bladine: AI takes a dive into ambulance service finances
Readers — here and far beyond — will continue and expand their engagement with artificial intelligence, which has become the quintessential research tool of our age. Each time, readers should be reminded of the warning that accompanies every response from the most popular AI platform:
“ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.” But that shouldn’t stop us from using the tool.
Looking at important local issues, I was drawn to our August news story about the critical financial situation with McMinnville Fire District ambulance services. Information from MFD Chief Reed Godfrey produced this story report:
“Last year, MFD billed approximately $16 million and received approximately $4 million, largely due to the discrepancy between the cost of transporting Medicare or Medicaid patients and the amount the district is reimbursed for the rides.”
I could have contacted Chief Godfrey, reached out to state and federal regulatory agencies, sought interviews with other Oregon ambulance service officials, and conducted painstaking Internet and library research. But there just wasn’t enough time.
Instead, I submitted this query to ChatGPT:
“In McMinnville, OR, the municipal ambulance service is facing a financial catastrophe because of the high cost and low reimbursement of ambulance services to Medicare and Medicaid enrollees. The agency cites average cost of $2,500 per ambulance service, with federal reimbursement of only $426 per service, causing the agency to lose millions of dollars each year in serving Medicare/Medicaid enrollees. Have other public or private ambulance services around the country had any success in overturning that financial-loss trend in serving Medicare/Medicaid enrollees?”
ChatGPT “thought” for 71 seconds before returning a 587-word response that cited, and linked to, all kinds of possibilities for financial reimbursements. At closing, the AI “assistant” suggested:
“If you’d like, I can map out a McMinnville-specific checklist (eligibility, paperwork, and contacts) for Oregon’s GEMT and state-directed payment paths, plus draft talking points for state legislators on treat-in-place coverage.”
“Please do,” I wrote. After another 54 seconds, ChatGPT produced 1,030 words it characterized as “a practical, McMinnville-specific playbook you can act on right away.” At closing of that exchange, ChatGPT offered:
“If you want, I can turn this into a 1-page internal checklist and a separate 1-page legislator handout (with the WI/NY citations above) so you can start outreach immediately.”
That’s the process with AI: The deeper you dig, the deeper it offers to go. And so long as you recognize the potential for error … so long as you go direct to AI’s sources of information for confirmation … the result is a compilation of amazing amounts of useful information in seconds instead of hours, or days, weeks, months or longer.
Are there any answers there for MFD? Are ambulance service officials across the state collaborating in the search for solutions to the financial crunch all are facing? Far be it from me to know.
However, I did pass my AI chat along to our reporter, who might ask a few related questions the next time he writes about the McMinnville Fire District ambulance service finances.
Jeb Bladine can be reached at jbladine@newsregister.com or 503-687-1223.
Comments
Lizzy
Always concerned when all of the facts about finances are not disclosed. The taxpayers of McMinnville pay a property tax for this ambulance service. It does not depend entirely on reimbursements from medicare and medicaid. The district also sponsors a program citizens can subscribe to to avoid the fees altogether. Be a little more transparent.
oldeee
McMinnville Fire DISTRICT residence pay a tax basically for fire protection. When these tax bases were originally established the ambulance service actually made money for the DEPARTMENT. All of this changed in the early 2000's when Medicare and Medicaid began reducing reimbursement.
The other fire districts have nothing in their fire budgets to contribute to the ambulance services provided by MFD. It looks to me like there is a need for a tax base for the areas served by the MFD ambulances.
Lizzy mentions the Fire-Med program but that only makes the deficit worse. It was great while the ambulances were making money but not now.
Jeb Bladine
Lizzy,
The column was intended to focus only on a specific part of the McMinnville Fire District budget that has such a high cost compared to revenue. You are correct that local taxpayers pay a lot for fire and Emergency Medical Services.
The MFD 2025-26 total budget is $21.365 million. That includes a General Fund of $8 million, mostly for personnel benefits ($2.1 million) and debt service ($5.4 million). It includes $2.4 million for Administration, $8.4 million for operations, $400,000 for fire prevention and safety, and just over $400,000 for training.
Revenue includes $8.45 million in property taxes and $13 million from other sources, including $4.5 million in transport fees and FireMed. The published budget does not separate personnel costs between Fire and EMS, making it difficult to see actual costs for fire services versus EMS services, but a large marjority of personnel cost is for 38 fire personnel including 28 firefighters.
It seems clear that local taxpayers could save significant tax requirements if the costs for Medicare/Medicaid ambulance services were more closely reimbursed.