You asked for a summary of 2006 legislation affecting emergency medical services (EMS) and their personnel.

SUMMARY

2006 legislation (1) gives primary service area responders (PSARs) intervenor status in Department of Public Health certificate of need hearings, (2) establishes an expedited process for certain PSARs to add emergency vehicles, (3) specifies that EMS management services organizations may not own or lease ambulance or other emergency vehicles, (4) changes the information public safety answering points must report, and (5) provides $ 173,000 to support the state's five regional EMS Councils.

CERTIFICATE OF NEED

Intervenor Status for Primary Service Area Responders

New legislation (sSB 317) grants PSARs intervenor status, under specified circumstances, in DPH hearings on another service's request to add or expand service. The act requires DPH to grant intervenor status, including the opportunity to cross examine witnesses, at a PSAR's request, if the hearing deals with new or expanded service in a town the PSAR serves.

Expedited Review for New Vehicle

The same act also establishes an expedited process for certain PSARs to add an emergency vehicle to their fleets. It permits a licensed or certified volunteer municipal ambulance service that is a PSAR to add one emergency vehicle every three years without having to go through the otherwise required public hearing on the request. The one vehicle limit applies to the provider's entire fleet regardless of the number of towns it serves.

When it applies for this expedited review, the volunteer municipal PSAR must give written notice to all other PSARs in towns where it proposes to use the vehicle and those abutting them. If one of these PSARs requests a hearing within 15 calendar days after receiving notice, DPH must hold a hearing; if none object, the application is deemed approved 30 calendar days after it is filed.

PSARs must apply for expedited review on a short form DPH develops. The form must require the applicant to provide, at least, (1) its name and address; (2) the primary service area for which the vehicle is proposed; (3) how the vehicle will be used and why it is needed; (4) proof of insurance; (5) its total call volume, response time, and calls passed within the primary service area in the year before its application; (6) a list of the PSARs it notified and proof of this notification; and (7) any other information the commissioner deems necessary.

Compliance with Authorization

This act requires an EMS entity (which includes an ambulance, rescue, or management service), within six months after the date DPH approves its request for new or expanded services, to (1) acquire the resources, equipment, and other material it needs to comply with the terms of approval and (2) operate in the area identified in its application. Failure to do either within six months voids the approval, which DPH must rescind.

sSB 317 (§36), effective upon passage

EMS MANAGEMENT SERVICES

A new law (sSB 317) specifies that EMS management services organizations, which provide personnel to EMS providers, are employment organizations and may not own or lease ambulance or other emergency vehicles. The law already required DPH to license these organizations, and this year's act explicitly subjects them to DPH disciplinary action if they violate DPH regulations or fail to maintain required standards. These disciplinary actions include license or certification suspension or revocation, probation, or a civil penalty of up to $ 10,000. The act explicitly permits them to appeal DPH disciplinary or other licensing actions under the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act.

The act also requires all ambulance services to secure and keep medical control by a sponsor hospital for all their EMS personnel, whether the provider or a management service employs them.

sSB 317 (§ 35), effective upon passage

FUNDING FOR REGIONAL EMS COUNCILS

The legislature provided $ 173,000 in the FY 07 budget to support the state's five regional EMS Councils. The state money fills in for decreased federal Preventive Health and Health Services Block grant funding, which previously covered about 30% of the councils' annual budgets.

HB 5845, effective July 1, 2006

EMERGENCY RESPONSE INFORMATION

This act (sSB 317) changes the information public safety answering points must report. It requires them to report all calls for services they receive through the 9-1-1 system, instead of reporting the calls they receive for EMS services and the 9-1-1 calls they receive involving medical services. And, instead of reporting the elapsed time between answering a call and dispatching services or relaying the call to another public or private safety agency, they must report the time that elapses before they transfer or terminate a call. Finally, the act removes the requirement that they report this information quarterly to DPH.

sSB 317 (§ 512), effective October 1, 2006

MODEL GUIDELINES FOR VOLUNTEER EMERGENCY PERSONNEL

This act requires the state fire administrator to develop model guidelines that towns with paid or volunteer emergency personnel may use as the basis for agreements allowing people to serve as volunteer emergency personnel during their personal time. He must develop the guidelines by January 1, 2007 and within available appropriations.

PA 06-22 (sHB 5284), effective upon passage

DEFINITIONS OF EMERGENCY AND DISASTER

EMS personnel are, by law, members of the state's civil preparedness forces. A new law conforms Connecticut's definitions of “major disaster” and “emergency” to the current federal definitions (42 USC § 5122) for purposes of the civil preparedness and emergency management statutes.

PA 06-15 (sHB 5085), effective October 1, 2006

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