Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are a greatly overlooked part of our Emergency Services. Most people do not realize that EMS is separate from the medical, fire, and police fields in terms of budgeting. Medical, fire, and police are each funded through the State while EMS is not directly funded through the State; EMS receives a portion of the Fire budget and it is not specified what percent or amount each EMS section will receive resulting in serious under-funding of our EMS squads.

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In speaking with many EMS supervisors across the area I have learned that their equipment is far beyond the need of replacement; their responders are far behind in current training and equipment. Most EMS squads have pieced together equipment, many times cannibalizing older equipment to make other out of date equipment work. All the while, this goes unnoticed by the general population until they require emergency support. Additionally, when services are rendered and claims are filed, the insurance providers only pay out less than 50% of the billed cost and even that is a long, drawn out process. All of this leads to less prepared EMS personnel working with substandard equipment because they cannot afford to purchase new and current equipment or keep up with the most current life-saving skills due to the costs of training.

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EMS squads find it harder and harder to find qualified personnel to fill their ranks; this is because of multiple factors. First, most EMS personnel start out around $15.00 to $18.00 an hour and have to come to the EMS squadron with their basic training already completed which comes at a great cost to the individual. Secondly, we expect people to want to work in this field yet we expect them to pay for this expensive training and then put their lives and certification on the line for every call. We expect them to do all of this for about the same pay as the person working the register at your local fast food restaurants or stocking shelves at the local stores. Not only is this not fair but it is unrealistic.

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I would propose legislation that separately and fairly funds the EMS departments, ensuring that they have the funding to operate at the highest capability available. Additionally, this legislation would either provide education grants for individuals wanting to go into this field or directly to the EMS squads to hire and cover the cost of educating, training, and certifying applicants.

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I would also propose legislation that would force insurance providers to pay a more reasonable amount of the billed expenses from the EMS billing, if not all of it. This legislation would also force a 30 day turn around in the billing process from the date the EMS billed the insurance company until the payout date; late fees would be harsh and would force insurance companies to comply and payout as fast as possible.