What's happening
This bill allows municipalities or fire districts to bypass regional EMS council approval for permanent ambulance certification unless they fail standards or harm regional services.
Why it matters
Expands eligibility. Any municipality or fire district in New York, rather than only those in certain population brackets, can now bypass the regional “public need” determination process when seeking permanent EMS certification.
Streamlines approval. Applications from these local agencies go directly to the state health commissioner for approval, reducing bureaucratic delays and potentially speeding up the process of establishing municipal EMS services.
Adds new safeguards. The commissioner can deny applications only if the service fails to meet training, staffing, or equipment standards, or if it demonstrably harms EMS service levels in the surrounding region—adding a specific check to prevent negative impacts on neighboring services.
Immediate and retroactive effect. The law applies not just to new applicants, but also to municipalities and fire districts with ongoing or pending temporary certifications and those currently appealing determinations, potentially altering outcomes for cases already in progress.
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Eases Ambulance Service Approvals
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 45
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to health
- Referred to health
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
1315
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 9, 2017
Introduced by Sen. LITTLE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to applications for determination of public need
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subdivision 7 of section 3008 of the public health law, as amended by chapter 464 of the laws of 2012, is amended to read as follows:
(b) [In the case of an application for certification pursuant to this subdivision, for a municipal advanced life support or municipal ambulance service, to serve the area within the municipality, where the proposed service meets or exceeds the appropriate training, staffing and equipment standards, there shall be a strong presumption in favor of approving the application.] Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, any [city with a population of fourteen thousand seven hundred or sixty-two thousand two hundred thirty-five, according to the two thousand ten federal decennial census] municipality within this state, or fire district acting on behalf of any such [city] municipality, [that] which applies for permanent certification pursuant to this [section] subdivision at the conclusion of the two year period [provided in] contained in paragraph (a) of this subdivision, shall not be required to apply to its regional emergency medical services council [or the state emergency medical services council] for a determination of need, and the application shall be submitted to and approved by the commissioner unless the commissioner finds that the municipal advanced life support first responder service or municipal ambulance service has failed to meet the appropriate training, staffing and equipment standards and/or the commissioner determines that the municipal advanced life support first responder service or municipal ambulance service has caused a detrimental impact on services in the surrounding region.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00385-01-7
S. 1315 2
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to any municipality or fire district that has a temporary determination of public need and to any application made by a municipality or fire district that is currently in the administrative appellate process or on appeal before any court of competent jurisdiction.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to applications for determination of public need
Purpose
To clarify the right of a municipality or a fire district to establish an advanced life-support first response service or municipal ambulance service within the municipality or fire district when it meets Health Department training, staffing, and equipment standards
Summary of provisions
Subdivision 7 (b) of Section 3008 of the Public Health Law is amended by removing the requirement that a municipality or fire district apply to the regional emergency medical services council for permanent operating authority at the conclusion of its initial two-year period. Requires the Commissioner of Health to approve the application for permanent operating authority if the service meets applicable training, staffing and equipment standards, unless the municipality or fire district has caused a detrimental impact on services in the surrounding region.
Read the full memo (725 words)
Existing law
Currently, Public Health Law § 3008 grants municipalities or fire districts acting on behalf of municipalities a two-year presumption of need for advanced life support first response services or municipal ambulance services. After two years, an application must be filed with a regional council for determination of need prior to continued operation of the service.
Justification
Like police and fire service, emergency medical service is a basic public service that a municipality should be entitled to provide.
Despite amendments to § 3008, municipalities are still at a distinct disadvantage when applying for a certificate of need to continue the provision of ambulance services, as evidenced by the 2012 City of Utica and Glens Falls legislation. Municipalities or fire districts seeking to continue established operations must apply to their Regional Emergence Medical Services Council (REMSCO), which by statute includes at least one-third representatives of private ambulance services that may have a business interest in preventing competition. Pursuant to the REMSCO process and the definition of public need contained in the Bureau of EMS Policy 06-06, any entity, private or otherwise, can challenge the application for continued operation of the municipality or fire district based on public need through a simple statement that such challenging entity is ready, willing, and able to take over the municipality or fire district's current territory.
Given that many municipalities have spent great time and expense in training municipal employees in advanced life support and have the appropriate equipment and staffing necessary to provide services in compliance with DOH safety requirements, they should not be subject to additional scrutiny by private providers through the REMSCO process.
The operation of ambulance services has proven to provide an invaluable benefit to municipalities. Municipal ambulance services have shown to provide faster response times by virtue of their
knowledge of the communities and the fact that they are already responding to emergency calls.
Additionally, when the municipality is providing both treatment and transportation, the responders provide a continuity of care as opposed to waiting for another provider to arrive on scene before transporting the patient to a treatment facility. This continuity results in more efficient patient care and limits the need to hand off patients to another provider. For instance, the City of Saratoga Springs has operated its municipal ambulance service since 2012 and reported an 18-month average response time half that of other ambulance providers in the same area.
The bill explicitly provides that the Commissioner shall not grant the municipal or district service authority to operate permanently if it "has caused a detrimental impact on services in the surrounding region". Therefore, there should be no concern for existing providers that the removal of the RESMCO from the application process will undermine existing services. This same argument was made by the opponents to the 1992, 1997, and 2012 amendments of § 3008 and was not borne out by experience.
Legislative history
2015-16: S.3354 Referred to Health; Advance to Third Reading 2014: A9852 - passed Assembly Health, died in Assembly Rules
Fiscal implications
None.
Local fiscal implications
Potential generation of revenue to offset first responder services.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to any municipality or fire district that has a temporary determination of public need, any application made by a municipality or fire district for a permanent operating certificate that is currently in the administrative appellate process or judicial review.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.