Correction: It was originally reported that more physicians will be added to the Board composition. According to Bob Gainer, KAPA president, both KAPA and CKEMSA will consider adding more physicians to the Board.

Concept of having EMS Board approved

By JOHN HULTGREN
Kentucky EMS Connection

FRANKFORT — The Health and Welfare Committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has approved the concept of having a separate EMS Board.

Kentucky House Bill 405, submitted by the Kentucky Ambulance Providers Association and also known as "EMS 2000," had it first hearing this morning before the committee in Frankfort. 

Changes in the original wording of House Bill 405 were being made as late as Monday evening in preparation for the hearing. "Changes had to be made in order to have any hope of committee adoption on Tuesday," said James Ritchey, secretary of the Central Kentucky EMS Alliance.

The new bill is a combination of the previous language found in House Bill 370 and 405. House Bill 370 will be withdrawn.

Under the bill, all authority regarding EMT-First Responders, Basics, and Paramedics and all ambulance services would be transferred from the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure and the Kentucky EMS Branch to a newly created Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services.

Recent changes in the bill include:

• Insurance language has been removed. The original bill would have required Medicaid to reimburse at the Medicare rate and not restrict payments based only upon transport, and would have required all health and auto insurance policies to pay for EMS services (and not just transport).
• The staffing requirements for paramedics on all Advanced Life Support transports has been removed.
• The increased funding for EMS grants, originally expected to be $50,000 per county, was reduced back to the current $25,000 per county.
• Paramedics would be licensed, but other EMTs would remain certified.

In addition, the Kentucky Ambulance Providers Association and the Central Kentucky EMS Alliance will consider adding more physicians to the Board composition.

Since funding is involved, the bill must now go before the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. Next, the bill would go before the full House and then on to the Senate.

The full text of the rewritten bill should be available this evening.

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