AAC Ambulance Services: Vital for public health but neglected
atically disregarded by our state and federal governments. Neglect of Ambulance Services:
A Flat-line Medicaid Reimbursement Rates
On Feb. 19, 2020, the Senate and House Public Health Committees and the Senate and House Insurance and Com- merce met jointly. Attendees were truly aghast about what was discovered during that joint meeting. Every Arkansan should be equally shocked. Te Medicaid reimbursement rates for advance life support (ALS) ambulance care services in Arkansas have been flat for over 25 years. ALS refers to an ambulance with a paramedic and emergency medical technician on board. Currently, ev- ery county in Arkansas has an ALS ambulance. However, that soon will no longer be the situation in Arkansas. Below is a snapshot of the funding in Arkansas over the past 26 years for ALS ambulance services and the allowable reimbursement rates under Medicaid and Medicare.
mbulance services are absolutely vital. We depend on ambulance services for our own lives and the lives of our loved ones. Tis was true before the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s no less true in a post Covid-19 world. Yet, in the past ambulance services have been system-
Citizens and taxpayers should
be alarmed about the disregard for the funding of ambulance ser- vices in Arkansas. Tis systematic disregard has placed ALS ambu- lance services in many counties in Arkansas in jeopardy. Our class 1 and class 2 counties with popula- tions below 10,000 and 20,000, respectively, are in the most precarious positions. Rural areas of Arkansas often lack the population and number of runs under these stagnant Medic- aid reimbursement rates to keep ambulance services solvent. Jamie Pafford-Gresham is president/chief executive officer of
Mark Whitmore AAC Chief Counsel
Pafford Emergency Medical Services (EMS), one of the oldest and largest privately-owned EMS systems in the region. She also serves as government affairs chairperson for the industry, American Ambulance Association. She explains the situation as follows: “Historically, many counties in Arkansas contracted with
private providers as not to have the financial burden and exper- tise required to properly staff an ambulance service 24/7/365 days a year. In a majority of cases this was done with little to no sub-
RESEARCH CORNER
COUNTY LINES, SPRING 2020
See “AMBULANCE” on Page 40 >>> 13
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