A Huntington, W.Va.-based billing company has been hired to handle the claims for the county’s new ambulance service.

Lawrence County Commissioners approved using the services of Medical Claims Assistance (MCA) on a temporary basis during the start-up of the Lawrence County Emergency Medical Services.

“It will give MCA a chance to show what you can do on a temporary basis,” Commissioner Jason Stephens told MCA president Tara Hardwick.

Hardwick spoke to commission at its regularly scheduled Thursday meeting. The commissioners and MCA officials had met at an earlier work session to discuss the possibility of contracting with the company. MCA bills for 200 emergency squads in five states and gets one-third of its workforce from Lawrence County.

“We will try to do everything possible to get revenue generated from potential bills as soon as possible,” Hardwick said. “We would like to be part of your success. We could up your revenue.”

Hardwick said the company would like to offer intensive training to those in the field on billing procedures that could bring in the most revenue.

“The main thing is having that revenue come in,” Stephens said. “We need to have something in place on Jan. 1.”

Right now the new ambulance service needs Medicare and Medicaid insurance numbers before it can bill patients. Last week Buddy Fry, the new director of the LCEMS, applied for those numbers, which can take from 30 to 90 days to process.

“That is our highest priority,” Fry told the commissioners. “I will continue to bird dog that until we get it done.”

Commissioners also heard from Michael Warren of Emergitech and Lonnie Best of the county’s 911 about significant upgrades to the dispatching system. Best’s office will take over dispatching of the ambulance service as well as the current 911 calls.

New software will allow the system to dispatch via texting as well as text video of crash and fire scenes.

“It is a pretty cost effective system,” Warren said.