Rep. Haines Testifies in Support of Three Public Health Bills
Last week I had the opportunity to testify in front of the Public Health Committee on three bills that impact local first responders who provide so much to our communities. With emergency services being so critically important to our small towns, I needed to point out the realities regarding the increasing challenges our EMS professionals are facing.
I will continue to work on their behalf to ensure that the bills we are passing in this legislature improve training, recruiting, and retention.
House Bill 6605: An Act Concerning Primary Area Service Responders
As a municipal leader, I have become well versed in the problems with Emergency Medical Services system in our town as well as in other towns in the state of CT. It’s a complicated problem. But as a municipal leader, public safety it is my first priority. That is, when you dial 911, a trained emergency medical provider answers the call, gets to your side, delivers prompt medical attention, and gets you to the hospital to further your care.
In order to have Basic Life Support services in a town, an ambulance service must get an operator ’s license, also known as the primary service area designation. That license gives them the exclusive right to perform Basic Life Support for the town. If that organization does a fair job at answering calls meaning get to at least 50% of the calls, they keep the operator’s license unless the municipality deems it unsatisfactory and schedules a hearing with the Office of Emergency Services to discuss the current organization ’s performance. The State of CT has one hearing officer. The backlog is huge there. If an ambulance organization answers 80% of the calls, they are doing a satisfactory job. How would you like to be #9 or your mom be #9 on that list? As a municipal leader, I am concerned about #9 and #10 on that list. I shouldn’t be held hostage to an “satisfactory” organization. HB 6605 gives me that opportunity to oversee my emergency responders and I will do everything in my power to make sure that #9 and #10 get the emergency responders to their house, too. If I have any doubt that there aren’t enough people on shift for a particular night or our Chief of Service does not respond to an issue, I will be sure that our Chief is at the scene taking care of that patient. Who better than the chief elected official of a municipality to have the authority over who responds to the 911 calls for its citizens. Allowing each municipality to own the primary service area designation and to designate their own primary service area responder for their citizens just makes sense. If there is a lack of confidence is an existing organization providing BLS services, a town should have the authority to shop for better services, like how you shop for a better doctor.
Finally, just a word about the profession of Emergency Medical Response. Our medical responders are highly trained and at a high cost to an individual. I know this firsthand. I have recently completed the EMR class in my town. I paid $650 to take the class. I am scheduled to take the state test practical in March 29 which I paid $80 and the state’s written test for $140 later in April. The expense to the individual to get trained even at the basic level is almost $1000. EMTs and paramedics pay even more. Equipment needed such as a Lucas device, an automatic breathing device is $20,000. Yet, the reimbursement rate for a Medicaid call could be as little as $238.00 back to an organization. The Medicare and Medicaid rates need to be increased to help pay for this important work. The current attention that all committees are giving to our healthcare workers in terms of education and career pathways as well as incentives need to be extended to our first responders. Our emergency medical response professionals should be treated as important healthcare workers. They are the first attendant of patient care, after all. This whole professional and its needs should be elevated to emergency status because that’s where it’s at!