Rural Ambulance Service Task Force Stakeholder Survey

The Governor’s Rural Ambulance Service Task Force is responsible for evaluating the unique challenges faced by EMS agencies and EMS providers, in rural areas of New York, and making recommendations for improvements that support the health and safety of those communities. For the past six months, the Rural Ambulance Service Task Force has been reviewing the EMS systems in New York State, their staffing and funding models, and existing standards.

Based upon that research; surveys of EMS Coordinators, REMSCOs and Program Agencies; review of “Part S” and the work of the SEMSCO Sustainability TAG; and the collective experience of the Rural Ambulance Service Task Force, they have developed numerous suggestions for the long-term sustainability of Rural EMS. We are now asking for input from you, the stakeholders, on these proposals.

Please review and respond to the following questions as it pertains to the work of the Rural Ambulance Service Task Force. A series of Town Hall style meetings will be used to discuss the results of this survey once completed and evaluated.

If you have any questions, please contact Stephen Brucato, the Bureau of EMS Rural Ambulance Task Force Liaison at Stephen.Brucato@health.ny.gov.

 

 

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Payor mix is important to the financial sustainability of service reimbursement revenue. The Rural Ambulance Service Task Force is working to describe and propose policy changes aimed at improving reimbursement for EMS services rendered in rural areas. For the agencies and providers you represent, which of the following sources is most important to reimbursement revenue?
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Understanding the cost of running EMS agencies is the beginning of improving reimbursement rates. Would the agencies and providers you represent support the development of a streamlined mandatory cost reporting process if it was tied to legally mandated increases in reimbursement?
Current legislation provides authorization by amending Public Health Law to allow existing Mobile Integrated Healthcare and Community Paramedicine programs to operate as dictated by Executive Order Number 4 of 2021 for an additional two years. Should Mobile Integrated Healthcare and Community Paramedicine programs be incorporated into Public Health Law permanently in combination with legislatively mandated state funding for these programs?
One of the policy alternatives being considered by the Rural Ambulance Service Task Force is expansion of alternate destinations for ambulance transports. Currently, EMS agencies are allowed to transport clinically appropriate patients to alternate destinations that are accredited article 28 facilities (Hospitals) as dictated in Public Health Law. Do you feel that allowing EMS agencies to transport clinically appropriate patients to alternate destinations other than accredited article 28 facilities (including permission to bill and receive reimbursement for those transports under current ambulance billing guidelines) would improve the EMS system? Alternate transport destinations include but are not limited to health centers, physician offices, behavioral health centers, urgent care centers, and virtual emergency departments.
The Rural Ambulance Service Task Force is considering the potential benefit of developing funding streams to support the adoption of accreditation standards for EMS agencies. If the agencies and providers you represent were to have the opportunity to voluntarily become accredited (i.e., CAAS, CAMTs), would access to new funding be an incentive for them to do so?
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The Rural Ambulance Service Task Force is considering the potential benefit of creating an advisory or medical guidelines to provide guidance that assists counties and EMS agencies in building tiered response systems to preserve ALS resources for when truly necessary. Such an advisory would address expanded use of EMTs and AEMTs, call types that do not require an ALS level response, and call types that do not require to closest available transporting EMS resource to respond if that level of care is not believed to be necessary. If state advisory boards were assembled to create such advisories or guidelines, would the agencies and providers you represent benefit from those resources?
The Rural Ambulance Service Task Force feels it is important for counties to address EMS readiness as part of daily operations. EMS readiness at a county level includes mutual aid plans, gap coverage, and system status management operating in a unified system under the command of a common PSAP center. Do you support county governments being required to have countywide EMS response plans in place that address EMS readiness throughout the county regarding daily operations?
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Do you think a state-funded recruiting platform would help with recruiting people to EMS?
Do you feel it would be beneficial if there was an option for educators to conduct a combined EMT / AEMT class? This concept would allow students to progress directly into the AEMT program after completing the EMT section. The EMT / AEMT combination class concept would be designed to streamline and accelerate the education process involved with becoming and AEMT.

The information below is completely optional:

Are you interested in being contacted by a Task Force member to discuss this survey in greater detail?