The NAEMT Board of Directors outlined key principles for EMS in healthcare policy in a January 2018 position statement. The principles are:
- EMS is an essential safety net component of America’s healthcare system.
- EMS should actively participate in the development of healthcare policy.
- Medical services provided by EMS agencies should be reimbursed as a provider of medical care as opposed to a provider of transportation.
- EMS reimbursement and economic models should be based on the cost of providing healthcare, as determined by EMS agency cost reporting, the most recent GAO study on ambulance costs, as well as value-based, quality measures.
- Both emergency and non-emergency EMS should be covered services.
- EMS can contribute to more optimal healthcare and achieve healthcare savings when integrated with
the healthcare system and engaged for clinically appropriate patient navigation services such as proactively addressing the needs of patients frequently using Emergency Departments, and
referral or transport of patients to a variety of medically appropriate facilities.
- Analysis should always be conducted to determine the impact of healthcare policy changes on
Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding, the surge capacity of the healthcare system in general and EMS systems specifically, in the event of major disasters or public health emergencies, and on rural hospital closures.
- Healthcare cost savings should not be achieved by reducing the capacity of EMS to respond with clinically meaningful response times or the capacity to surge.
- EMS should be fully and seamlessly integrated into our nation’s trauma system.
- EMS data should be collected and available for improvements in EMS care, and
integrated with data on the overall health care system.
View full position statement