2019 AAA Legislative Awards

Posted on by AAA Staff

The American Ambulance Association is proud to announce the winners of the 2019 AAA Legislative Awards, in recognition of their strong advocacy for emergency medical services. Each legislator was chosen for their ongoing dedication to the ambulance services across the United States. 2019 AAA Legislator of the Year Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL) 2019 AAA Legislative Recognition Award Recipients Senators Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. Senator Susan M. Collins Senator Chuck Grassley Senator Doug Jones Senator Patrick J. Leahy Senator Pat Roberts Senator Charles E. Schumer Senator Debbie Stabenow Senator Jon Tester Senator John Thune Senator Ron Wyden Representatives Representative Earl Blumenauer Representative Rosa DeLauro Representative Debbie Dingell Representative Richard Hudson Representative Darin LaHood Representative Markwayne Mullin Representative Richard E. Neal Representative Devin Nunes Representative Steve Scalise Representative Scott Tipton Representative Fred Upton Representative Greg Walden Representative Peter Welch Representative Lee Zeldin

House Introduces PSOB Bill (H.R. 2887)

Posted on by AAA Staff

The American Ambulance Association (AAA) is pleased to announce that Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-NY-01) and Congressman Thomas Suozzi (D-NY-03) have introduced H.R. 2887, the “Emergency Medical Services Providers Protection Act.” This piece of legislation would extend the Public Safety Officers’ Benefit (PSOB) to cover first responders who work for private providers. The PSOB Program provides death and education benefits to survivors of fallen law enforcement officers, firefighters, and other first responders, and disability benefits to officers catastrophically injured in the line of duty. The AAA has advocated tirelessly for years that all first responders killed in the line of duty, should be eligible for this benefit regardless of who their employer is. Many of the nation’s first responders work for more than one EMS Agency. Local communities throughout the country decide which organization is best fit to provide high quality mobile healthcare to their community. For large parts of the country, privately run ambulance services have been providing high quality health care, and responding to the same natural disasters, incidents, etc. as their peers for decades. It is common for Paramedics and EMTs to also work/volunteer as firefighters and vice versa. Currently, if a line of duty death occurs, whether (more…)

Member Update on Balance Billing

Posted on by Aidan Camas

This morning Ruth Hazdovac and Aidan Camas of AAA staff and Kathy Lester, Esq, Healthcare Consultant to the AAA attended a briefing held by the House Energy & Commerce Committee on the issue of surprise/balance billing. At the briefing, staff for Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-OR) announced that they would be releasing a bipartisan discussion draft, the No Surprises Act, which would “protect consumers from surprise medical bills and increase transparency in our health care system.” As of now, ground and air ambulances are NOT included in the discussion draft. However, the committee is asking for comments on ground and air ambulance and recommendations on how to provide relief to the consumer in this area. The AAA has a Balance Billing Work Group that is hard at work developing a policy recommendation that will work for our members. The House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Lloyd Doggett also announced today that the Health Subcommittee will hold a hearing next week entitled “Hearing on Protecting Patients from Surprise Medical Bills.” AAA Staff will be at the briefing and provide a timely update to membership on any developments. The AAA team will be submitting comments and (more…)

President’s Perspective April 2019

Posted on by Aarron Reinert

Dear Fellow AAA Members, Spring is in full bloom in Washington, D.C., and the American Ambulance Association is hard at work in our nation’s capital advocating for mobile healthcare providers. I am pleased to share with you several updates from your association. Advocacy Progress The AAA continues to forge ahead advocating for the legislative and regulatory priorities of our membership. Earlier this month, more than forty AAA volunteer leaders and members came to Washington, D.C., meeting with more than 100 congressional offices to advocate for Medicare policies and improved claims processing by the Department of Veterans Affairs for emergency ambulance services. (View photos on Facebook.) The AAA has also taken an active role in responding to potentially harmful “surprise billing” legislation. The AAA has been urging Members of Congress to recognize the unique and essential nature of emergency ambulance services and ambulance interfacility mobile healthcare transports. Ambulance service suppliers and providers are already heavily regulated at the local level and struggle with receiving adequate reimbursement. The Congress should protect patient access to ground ambulance services and continue to allow us to balance bill. The AAA is working closely with CMS and the RAND corporation on the development of the ambulance (more…)

Senate Introduces S. 228

Posted on by AAA Staff

Last year, Congress included in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 an offset to cover the cost of the 5 year extension of the add-ons. The offset cuts reimbursement for BLS nonemergency transports to and from dialysis centers by an additional 13%. This is on top of the preexisting 10% reduction. The AAA is pleased to announce that Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Doug Jones (D-AL) have recently introduced S. 228 which would restructure the offset so that a majority of the additional reduction would be focused on those ambulance service agencies in which 50% or more of their volume are repetitive BLS nonemergency transports to and from dialysis centers. S. 228 is the reintroduction of S. 3619 from last Congress which served as a companion bill to the House version, the NEATSA Act (H.R.6269), by Congressman LaHood (R-IL) and Congresswoman Sewell (D-AL) which was introduced in June 2018. AAA staff and volunteer leaders are working to get a House version of this legislation reintroduced shortly. The additional cut went into effect on October 1, 2018 and negatively impacted AAA members. The AAA is working to help pass this legislation and we will keep members updated as this legislation moves through (more…)

Congress Passes SIREN Act

Posted on by AAA Staff

On December 12, 2018, Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill (S. 3042) by a 386-47 vote in the House and 87 – 13 vote in the Senate. Included in the final Bill was language similar to the SIREN Act (S. 2830, H.R. 5429) to reauthorize the Rural EMS Grant program. In an effort to ensure the funding would go to the most needy, small, and rural EMS providers, the language of the amendment and SIREN Act would change the eligibility to just governmental and non-profit EMS agencies. Therefore, small rural for-profit ambulance service providers would no longer be eligible to apply for grants – which haven’t been funded for over a decade. These grants would now provide funds up to $200,000 for training, equipment, and personnel retention in rural areas. The grants also require a 10% contribution by the grant recipient. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will issue a guidance with the details on how these grants will be administered. Since the program has been unfunded for so long, it is unclear at this time, how it will be rolled out. HRSA will most likely follow past protocol providing details through guidance including how to submit and deadlines. (more…)

Brian

Federal District Court Judge Strikes Down the ACA

Posted on by Brian Werfel

On December 14, 2018, a federal district court judge for the Northern District of Texas issued a ruling striking down the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the grounds that the Individual Mandate was unconstitutional, and that the rest of the law cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny without the Individual Mandate. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor’s decision relates to a lawsuit filed earlier this year by 20 states and two individuals. The plaintiffs argued that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 — which amended the Individual Mandate to eliminate the penalty on individuals that failed to purchase qualifying insurance effect January 1, 2019 — rendered the Individual Mandate unconstitutional. The plaintiffs further argued that the Individual Mandate was inseverable from the rest of the ACA, and, therefore, that the entire ACA should be struck down. The defendants in this case were the United States of America, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Alex Azar, in his capacity as the Secretary of HHS, and David J. Kautter, in his capacity as the Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). 16 states and the District of Columbia intervened as additional defendants. In order to properly understand the district (more…)

Senate Introduces NEATSA Act Companion Bill (S. 3619)

Posted on by AAA Staff

Earlier this year, Congress included in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 an offset to go along with the extension of the add-ons that will cut reimbursement for BLS nonemergency transports to and from dialysis centers by an additional 13%. This will be on top of the existing 10% reduction. Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Doug Jones (D-AL) just introduced S. 3619 which would restructure the offset so that a majority of the additional reduction would be focused on those ambulance service agencies in which 50% or more of their volume are repetitive BLS nonemergency transports to and from dialysis centers. S. 3619 will serve as a companion Bill to the House version, the NEATSA Act (H.R.6269) by Congressman LaHood (R-IL) and Congresswoman Sewell (D-AL) which was introduced in June 2018. The additional cut went into effect on October 1 and impacted AAA members and the AAA are working to get this legislation passed. The AAA will be sure to keep members updated as this legislation moves through Congress. Questions?: Contact Us If you have questions about the legislation or regulatory initiatives being undertaken by the AAA, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the AAA Government Affairs (more…)