At the recent Cumberland County Commission meeting, Mayor Kenneth Carey recommended the permanent appointment of Interim Director Chris Miller as the Cumberland County Emergency Medical Services Director.    Miller had been serving as interim director since the end of December 2016 when former Fire Chief/EMS Director Jeff Dodson retired.

The County counduted on intensive search in an effort to fill the position.  The County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) reviewed, evaluated, and recommended candidates John Stubbs, Chris Miller and John Fisherthree for the position. Each of the three candidates recommended by CTAS were then interviewed and evaluated by County Mayor Carey,  EMS Medical Director Dr. Mark Fox, and County Finance Director Nathan Brock.

In a letter of recommendation sent to County Commission members, Mayor Carey indated that as a result of those interviews, he along with  Dr. Fox and Nathan Brock were all were in agreement to recommend Chris Miller for director of Cumberland County EMS.

The EMS department has recently come under intense scrutiny because the County Commission Budget Committee discovered EMS collections have been lagging behind projections causing significant cash flow problems.  Typically, the  nationwide average of time it takes the ambulance billing industry to collect on an account is around sixty five days.  In Cumberland County, it has been averaging approximately 250 days.  The Committee also found 412 client information claims that need attention.  According to industry standards, the EMS office has more than enough employees to keep up with billing, but the Budget Committee was informed that AMB/MARS, the outside billing company used by EMS, is routinely called to collect boxes of billing information to help the department catch up on the EMS billing.  The  AMB/MARS representative told the committee that Cumberland County is leaving money on the table.  Since Mr. Miller has taken over the department as the Interim Director, the ambulance billing process appears to have improved.

Tim Claflin, 8th District Commissioner, made a motion to appoint Miller as EMS director. His motion was seconded by Rebecca Stone and was approved unanimously by the entire Commission.