Gcas

What it reported doing in 2011

Patient care - see schedule ogcas (duluth, mn) operates in conjunction with gold cross ambulance inc. (eau claire, wi) and gold cross ambulance service (rochester, mn) to form a medical transportation service referred to as gold cross. The above referenced three gold cross legal entities operate as "out-of-hospital" care organizations that provide medical care, comprehensive medical transportation and medical education and training to groups and individuals in the communities they serve. The core purpose of the gold cross service is providing care to people during their time of need resulting from accidents and medical emergencies. Gold cross responds to "911" calls in each community served without any regard to reimbursement for services, including the ability of the calling party to pay for the costs associated with the service. Gold cross provides basic life support, advanced life support, and critical care services. Nationally registered paramedics and emt's (emergency medical technicians) staff gold cross ambulances. This certification represents the highest level of certification for out-of-hospital emergency care providers available and exceeds the ambulance service standards required by Minnesota and Wisconsin law. The ambulance service utilizes dispatching services provided by a sophisticated computer aided dispatch system housed in our centralized emergency communications center (ecc) in rochester, mn, which is located in and operated by mayo clinic - saint marys hospital, a related exempt mayo entity. The ecc enables area-wide digital paging, provides pre-arrival medical instructions to callers, and ensures timely and efficient dispatch for all gold cross units. When patient care requires it, gold cross teams up with specially trained staff, including registered nurses from regional medical helicopter programs to provide a higher level of care for the patient, critical care. The standardization of patient care, services and supplies across the system and the integration of ground and air response through a centralized emergency communications center has enabled gold cross to prepare an efficient plan of action for multiple injury incidents. In addition, gold cross fills a variety of public safety services in each community served. In 2011, gold cross, as an integrated system, provided medical transportation to more than 49,937 patients, often involving comprehensive medical care during transportation. Of these patient transports, gcas provided service to approximately 11,969 of them. In addition, gcas responded to over 3,000 emergent requests for service that did not result in the transportation of a patient. These no transport requests consume a significant amount of financial resources, without a means of billing for and collecting revenue, as gcas fulfills one of its roles as a public safety provider in the communities served. Over 80 of these no transports are specific requests for us to standby as other public safety providers conduct their normal business such as fighting fires, doing high-risk police entries and activities, etc., which can often consume several hours of unpaid service by our crews for each standby. In addition, gold cross serves the needs of veterans through contracts for ambulance service with the veterans administration in st. Cloud, Minnesota and superior, Wisconsin.gcas provides charity care for patients financially unable to pay for services provided. Services are also provided to patients covered by medicare, medicaid, and other governmental programs at substantial discounts from standard fees. Charity care is an additional financial strain on ambulance services. A recent gao study on medicare reimbursement indicated reimbursement falls short of actual costs by 6% in urban and rural areas and 17% in super-rural areas. The cost of charity care provided in 2011 totaled approximately $13,000 and the cost of uncompensated care provided to low income patients through medicaid in 2011 totaled

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: Limited
• Program expense ratio: Limited
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Missing
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Scored; rating input score 0

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Fail
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -76%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
• Officer compensation ratio: 2.6%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: Limited
• Revenue growth: 5.5% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: -200% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings