I have spent twenty years in city council chambers, station day rooms, and trade show booths across Texas. EMERGICON turns 20 this year. In that time the rules, the payers, and the funding models have all changed. The questions chiefs ask me have not.
So instead of an anniversary speech, here are direct answers to the questions EMS leaders ask us every day.
“Are you really only in Texas?”
Yes. All across Texas and ONLY in Texas.
Every employee who picks up the phone when your patient calls, lives and works in Texas. That is not sentimentality. It is the right way to work for Texas EMS providers. We don’t outsource any part of the claims process to other states or overseas.
We would rather know one state completely than fifty partially. Twenty years in, we serve more than 200 Texas EMS agencies.
“Who actually looks at our claims?”
A Texan. Every time.
Your patient care reports are reviewed by certified ambulance coders. Payer research continues to be performed by the single largest team at EMERGICON. Follow-up on open claims is handled by a senior team of representatives.
Plenty of billing companies have quietly handed the work to automation, software or call centers outside of the United States. We are not willing to trade the right process for inexpensive processing.
“Are you going to hand everything over to AI?”
No, and the reasoning matters more than the answer.
We use automation heavily where it earns its keep: pulling records, matching patient accounts, posting routine payments. Machines handle high-volume, repetitive work faster and more accurately than people do.
Automation fails when the patient’s payer source is unclear. We know. We have tested automation, including third party tools, against our team. AI is good at processing what has already happened. It is not good at ambiguity, and EMS billing runs on ambiguity.
Real people stay in charge of coding, denials, payer research, claims follow up and patient conversations. Technology makes us faster. We keep investing in our own systems, including patented technology. We are building a platform from the ground up around EMS workflows and what will work best for EMS providers.
“Who owns EMERGICON?”
I do. Same as day one.
I am here every day, leading 125 people who work on nothing but Texas EMS claims.
In an era of private equity consolidation, that matters. Staying privately held means we decide what we value and what we invest in. At the end of a strong year, the profit goes back into our people and our technology that serves our customers and clients, not to outside investors.
“What happens after we sign?”
You get a trusted partner, not a vendor.
Our account managers, client success managers and leadership come to your stations and sit in on your council and board meetings. When Medicare regulations shift or a funding mechanism like GEMT changes, you hear it from us before it reaches your budget.
You also get full visibility into your own numbers. Clean reporting, available 24/7, with defensible metrics and revenue projections you can stand behind when a council member asks a hard question in a public budget hearing.
“What will our patients hear when they call?”
An employee of EMERGICON in Texas. This is the most important question an agency can ask.
The ambulance bill is often the last contact a resident has with their fire department or EMS provider. A cold or confusing billing experience lands on your reputation, not ours.
That is why we built The Texan Touch®: trained, patient staff who speak plainly and do not give people the runaround. Your patients get the same respect on the phone that your crews give them in the field.
The next twenty years
I started EMERGICON in 2006 because EMS crews were working around the clock while their claims were handled poorly. Agencies were losing revenue and could not get a clear answer as to why.
The mission has not moved: take the billing burden off first responders so they can do the job they signed up for.
The regulations are more complex now. Compliance risk is higher. Public funding models demand more precision than they ever have. We will keep investing in the platform and the people, so Texas agencies stay ahead of it.
To the partners who have been with us since 2006, thank you. To the ones who joined this year, welcome. This milestone belongs to every chief, director, paramedic, EMT, and administrator who put their trust in us.
Here is to the next twenty.
Have a question about your agency’s billing performance?
Call us at (877) 602-2060, email info@emergicon.com, or connect with us on LinkedIn.