POLAND – In a small town, people talk.

To remove any potential for complaints, appearance of conflict of interest, or the opportunity for people to take advantage of it, Poland’s Fire and Rescue Department will start using an outside company to recoup ambulance service costs.

The Board of Selectmen voted 5-0 Tuesday to award a contract to Medical Reimbursement Services of Windham.

“This just takes the personal aspect out of it and makes it strictly business,” said Fire and Rescue Chief Willie Rice. “It gets it out of house and lets an outside party serve as the contact for any billing or insurance complaints.”

Rice informed the board Tuesday that he researched 10 companies before recommending the Windham service. The chief will enter into a contract, yet to be drawn, that allows the Windham company to keep 8 percent of revenue collected.

The other company in the running was Accumed Billing of Michigan, which required a 10 percent collection fee.

It is anticipated that the new billing service will start July 1. It will be reviewed after one year.

Poland will maintain its current policy of not billing uninsured residents for emergency transportation to the hospital.

“A common complaint is that people pay enough in taxes and shouldn’t be billed,” Rice said. “As costs continue to rise, then taxes would have to go up. But people are already paying premiums to their insurance companies to cover that emergency service.”

In addition, situations that involve neighbors finding out who was billed and not billed, without knowing the full set of facts, could compromise the department’s staff and ethical standing, Rice said.

Rice estimated that Poland emergency crews answered 140 to 170 calls for ambulance transportation the past year. Costs for each response vary according to the amount of medical service necessary, Rice said.

Ambulance service falls into the categories of basic life support, which primarily involves transportation only, and advanced life support, which includes life-saving medical treatment. Rice did not have average response costs or standard reimbursement amounts at Tuesday’s meeting.

The fire and rescue chief said that regardless of actual costs, insurance companies and Medicaid pay fixed amounts.

“We’re really at the mercy of the insurance companies,” Rice said. “The bottom line is that this is a service we provide to the town, and we will provide it.”

Rice noted that a billing service that stays current on changing regulations and insurance policies will save the town time and money. There had been a question during the recent budget process of whether to pay hourly or through a stipend for in-house billing, Rice said.