EMS NEWS

Tidewater EMS news, August 26, 2013

The Tidewater EMS council hosted a meeting of local EMS agency managers and providers for the purpose of discussing the potential of community paramedic programs in our region. Most of the participants were well aware of the concepts and goals of such a programs but only one local agency has taken these ideas and implemented them in the field albeit in only a very basic way.  On the national stage these programs have been in place for years, several States have enacted legislation recently to enable this practice, the Affordable Care Act has accelerated the adoption of these programs as a way of both improving the quality of care and reducing healthcare costs. According to the Virginia Office of EMS (VAOEMS), Virginia has no such legislation pending, and they are not aware of any legal obstacles to implementing such programs. It was rumored that the home healthcare industry may be preparing a legal challenge to the concept but VAOEMS has no information supporting that allegation according to their representative.

The integration of field EMS into the objectives of the Affordable Care Act is necessary to achieve the long term goals of the act, the changes to EMS will occur, the council is rightly taking the role of facilitating the participation of field EMS agencies in designing their own future. The issue is very complex and requires the involvement of multiple healthcare entities, Local, State & Federal regulators, physicians and providers. The group acknowledged the complexity of the issue and looked at some short term goals. All agreed that public education for loyal customers would be a perfect place to start, one program is already in operation and others could be implemented with little work or need for any major program development. The second was that the group would convene again in a month to discuss what additional goals are desirable short term, realizing that the next steps in the process will be largely data driven. Next week (Sept. 5&6), the National EMS Advisory Council will meet in Washington D.C. The discussion there will be related to this topic as well. I hope to bring you more useful information about these developments as they occur…stay tuned.

AP