The Henry County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution establishing Ques Transport, LLC, as a designated emergency response agency at its May 28 meeting.
County Administrator Dale Wagoner said the company’s owner, Brandon Quesinberry, indicated that he intends to provide inter-facility transport services for Sovah Health in Martinsville and other medical facilities.
“This service will not be dispatched by our 911 Center or be eligible to respond to emergency calls,” he said.
Regarding billing, Quesinberry said he plans to bill directly to insurance companies first and then work with patients after that. If an individual cannot come up with the funds, Quesinberry said he has no desire to do any hard billing.
“We don’t have any desire to do judgements or anything like that,” he said. “I’ve done paramedic for 16 plus years, and this is service that’s greatly needed. There’s enough money on the table with revenue recovery from direct insurance billing that that is unnecessary, so we don’t have a desire to do that because we know how bad this is needed.”
Quesinberry said he wants to work with patients, and he’s talked with his team about just doing payment plans “or whatever they can do.” At the end of the day, “we have to make money to pay the insurance and rent, but we don’t have any desire to” to pursue judgements “or anything like that,” he said.
Quesinberry noted several insurance companies he’s partnered with were the brokers he worked with.
“They have lots of guidelines and several of the community funded insurance plans will not allow you to do that type of hard billing. So, we’re looking at partnering with all of the insurances and for several of them that’s not on the table if you want to be able to provide services to those clients with that policy,” he said.
Quesinberry added he knows of three insurance companies that do not allow hard billing, which is “why it’s easier just to make that soft billing policy.”
Jim Adams, chairman, and of the Blackberry District, said he was told by several people in the community that this is a needed service.
In other matters, the board:
*Heard from school board member Ben Gravely, of the Iriswood District, about school funding. While he wears two hats, one as a county resident and another as a school board member, Gravely asked the board why it was so hard to provide funding for the county’s youth.
“From a personal standpoint, I am addressing you this evening because of the education I received from Henry County Public Schools and thereafter. It has constantly been said by county leaders and community leaders in our community about further strengthening our workforce by educating ourselves,” he said.
Gravely said it’s also been said that businesses are reluctant to locate in the county unless it has a strong educational system. His first concern was a comment that the state should provide funding for education, and it should not rest with local government.
“I may be presumptuous here, however based upon that comment, if it were not for state laws requiring localities to provide funding then the school system wouldn’t exist. I sure hope I heard it wrong,” Gravely said, adding people are constantly saying ‘the children are our future.
“Help me understand why it’s such a challenge to provide funding for our children,” he said.
Wearing his school board hat, Gravely said he was somewhat offended by comments made during the April request for lump sum funding regarding transparency.
“Do you realize the implication that we’re making? We are elected officials just like you all, and the message that I perceived from that and from how your communities is like we can’t manage our budget. Are we doing something wrong… (do) we need oversight? That bothers me,” he said.
Gravely said comments were also made about the school board and board of supervisors working together.
“I have no problem with that. I don’t see that as an issue; however, I do ask that you trust us. Trust us. I’ve had several people come up to me and ask me what’s going on,” he said.
