Selectmen classify 2nd batch of Rescue receivables

LEBANON – Selectmen on Thursday wrote off another roughly $4,000 in ambulance bills as uncollectable as they continued the task of reclassifying Rescue Department receivables in realistic terms.

Meanwhile, selectmen continue negotiations with a forensic auditing firm as they try to decide whether or not it’s worth it for the town to pursue what could be a fairly expensive effort, especially if a substantial monetary gain seems less than likely.

Selectman Ben Thompson said on Friday that there’s a lot of investigating they are able to do in-house on former financial dealings between the Rescue Corporation and the town, and they are exploring all aspects along those lines.

In addition to the $4,000 in Rescue receivables written off on Thursday, nearly $7,000 was assigned to collections, while another almost $12,000 was set aside as possible Ambulance Subscription entries, in which patients were Lebanon residents who may have been entitled to free ambulance service because they had purchased a subscription.

Selectman Ben Thompson said those residents are being sent letters asking them to bring their subscription papers and proof of payment to Town Offices to be verified.

The $23,000 in receivables segregated on Thursday comes in addition to the $97,000 dealt with last month. In that earlier batch, about $40,000 fell under subscription scrutiny, about $40,000 was assigned to collections and about $16,000 was written off.

In both instances the amounts written off were mostly due to death, severe hardship or where the person had moved out of state and could not be found.