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RFP | State EMS Policy Whitepaper & Strategic Consulting

Written by Amanda Riordan on . Posted in AAA HQ, State-Level Advocacy.

Request for Proposal

State EMS Policy Whitepaper Development & Strategic Consulting Services

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Overview and Objectives

The American Ambulance Association (AAA) seeks proposals from qualified consulting firms to provide strategic services in the field of ambulance and emergency medical services. The selected firm will work collaboratively with the Association to identify opportunities, analyze state landscapes, develop policy recommendations, and manage the project efficiently.

About the American Ambulance Association

Caring for People—First.
The American Ambulance Association safeguards the future of mobile healthcare through advocacy, thought leadership, and education. AAA advances sustainable EMS policy, empowering our members to serve their communities with high-quality on-demand healthcare. For more than 40 years, we have proudly represented those who care for people first. AAA’s 1500+ organizational members serve cities and counties in all 50 states.

Scope of Services

The consulting firm shall provide the following services:

  • Planning and Strategy Session: Convene a strategy session with key AAA leaders to prioritize states for research and opportunity development.
  • State Landscape Research and Analysis: Conduct comprehensive research and analysis for no fewer than ten states, focusing on:
    • State statutes, regulations, and Medicaid policies for ambulance services.
    • Medicaid fee schedules for ambulance services.
    • State policies on balance billing and treatment in place.
    • Initiatives addressing ambulance workforce shortage, including the use of grants and ARPA funds, with a particular focus on availability or potential availability for non-governmental EMS providers.
  • Policy Recommendation Development: Collaborate with AAA to develop in-depth state-level policy recommendations on the topics of EMS workforce recruitment and retention, balance billing, and treatment in place.
  • Whitepaper Development: Write, edit, and publish no fewer than three in-depth whitepapers focused on state-level EMS recruitment and retention, balance billing, and treatment in place policy. The whitepapers should be suitable for use by EMS providers and state level legislators and regulators seeking to identify state EMS policy best practices.
  • Project Management & Communication: Provide robust project management, including regular client meetings to review goals and progress during the development of policy recommendations and whitepapers. Facilitate regular coordination and progress review calls and monthly written updates.

All deliverables should be received in calendar year 2024.

Fees and Expenses

Proposals must include a detailed fee structure, including hourly rates for various personnel and any applicable prorated fees. A fixed total or capped amount is strongly preferred over uncapped “time and expenses” billing.

Submission Guidelines

Proposals should be submitted by January 31, 2024 to info@ambulance.org with the subject line “State EMS Whitepaper Proposal.” Proposals should include a detailed approach to the scope of services, a proposed timeline for deliverable development, detailed qualifications of the team, and a clear fee structure. Submitters should include examples of past work of similar scope in the broader healthcare field.

Selection Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the firm’s experience, approach to the project, team qualifications, and cost-effectiveness. Notification will be delivered by February 29, 2024.

 

 

AAA Provides Comments to the Senate HELP Committee Related to Workforce Shortage

Written by Meghan Winesett on . Posted in Government Affairs, Legislative, Member-Only, News, Recruitment & Retention.

The American Ambulance Association has submitted comments to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) in response to their request for input on crafting legislation to address the health care workforce shortage.

Ground ambulance service organizations are facing a severe shortage of paramedics and EMTs which is placing a significant strain on an emergency medical system already in financial distress. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to provide our legislative solutions to the committee to help address the ongoing workforce crisis.

Please see the document linked below, which was sent to the HELP Committee Chairman, Senator Bernie Sanders, and the Ranking Member, Senator Bill Cassidy.

3-17-2023 HELP Workforce Comments

 

NAEMT 2022 National Report on Engagement and Satisfaction in EMS

Written by AAA Staff on . Posted in Human Resources, Recruitment & Retention.

From the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians
NAEMT is pleased to present the results of our 2022 National Survey on EMS Workforce Engagement and Satisfaction. Earlier this year, NAEMT asked our members and other EMS practitioners about various aspects of their jobs, including pay, how well supported they feel by employers, and if they had plans to leave the profession. In nearly 1,300 responses, EMS practitioners painted a picture of a workforce that remains dedicated to caring for patients and serving the community, but is under a high degree of strain. They also shared their ideas for how EMS agencies could improve engagement and satisfaction. We thank the following members of NAEMT’s EMS Workforce Committee for their contributions to the survey: Robert Luckritz, Aaron Florin, Garrett Hedeen, Julius Jackson, Lawson Stuart, Mark Ponder, Mike Szczygiel and Mike Thomas. NAEMT also thanks FirstNet, Built with AT&T, for its generous sponsorship of the report.

 

Read Report

Senate Appropriators Address AAA’s Request for Workforce Assistance

Written by Meghan Winesett on . Posted in Government Affairs, Legislative, News.

Message from AAA President Shawn Baird

The paramedic and EMT shortage has become a top policy priority of the AAA as we pursue several short and long-term initiatives to address this unprecedented crisis. Over the last several months, the AAA has been working closely with Members of the Senate Appropriations Problem Committee and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to secure a grant program that would assist ground ambulance service organizations in hiring and retaining paramedics and EMTs. I am extremely pleased to report that the Fiscal Year 2023 Senate HHS appropriations package includes the program language for which the AAA has been advocating.

The language in the Senate Report reads:

EMS Preparedness and Response Workforce Shortage Program.— The Committee recognizes that our Nation is facing a crippling EMS workforce shortage which threatens public health and jeopardizes our ability to respond to healthcare emergencies on a timely basis. ASPR should prioritize ensuring a well-trained and adequate ground ambulance services workforce in underserved, rural, and Tribal areas and/or addressing health disparities related to accessing prehospital ground ambulance healthcare services, including critical care transport.

In the House, the AAA’s efforts contributed to House appropriators increasing the ASPR account funding for the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) (more than $30 million). We anticipate that ASPR would focus its efforts to address the ground ambulance workforce shortage through the HPP, so this increase in funding is also a critical component of the AAA’s efforts.

Although the appropriations process has many more steps to go through before final passage, having the EMS workforce shortage highlighted in the Senate report is a critical step toward achieving our goal to provide ground ambulance services across the country with the help they need during this unprecedent time.

The AAA will continue to work closely with Congressional champions and the ASPR team as they shepherd this language through the next steps in the process. I would like to thank Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chair Patty Murray (D-WA), Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Ranking Members Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) for championing and supporting the effort.

AAA President
Shawn Baird

 

SURVEY | Ambulance Industry Employee Turnover Study

Written by Scott Moore on . Posted in Recruitment & Retention.

The American Ambulance Association is partnering with Newton 360, an ambulance industry partner and Human Resource support firm, to conduct our fourth annual industry turnover study. Our intent is to comprehensively collect and analyze ambulance industry employee turnover data so as to produce a report that provides useful and actionable data. We are inviting EMS organizations to participate in the study. The study will be conducted and managed by Dennis Doverspike, PhD, and Rosanna Miguel, PhD, who are associated with the Center for Applied Talent Analytics at John Carroll University. Each individual or organizational response will be strictly confidential.

The purpose of the study is to better quantify and understand the reasons for turnover at nearly every organizational level within the EMS Industry. Thank you very much for your time and support.

Laying the Groundwork for Reducing Employee Turnover

Why participate in the survey?

  1. Educate elected officials, municipalities, and healthcare clients. The insight gained from this survey can help influence the actions, practices, or decisions of officials regarding regulatory and funding policies at the federal, regional, or local level. Specifically, this important data can help validate the critical staffing challenges faced by the EMS industry. This year, we continue to have queries related to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), to better understand impacts of the PHE on EMS turnover and its related costs.
  2. This study is critical to gaining insight into combating staff shortages. The AAA / Newton 360 2022 Ambulance Industry Employee Turnover Study aims to yield the information that organizations need to identify and benchmark their turnover challenges. Over the years this survey has been conducted, it has generated the largest response to a turnover survey ever published for the private EMS industry.
  3. Participating organizations will have full access to the final report at no charge. The comprehensive results of the study will be shared exclusively with each participating organization. Shorter write-ups and summaries of the results may be shared at conferences or published in relevant periodicals or journals.

Before You Start

It is recommended you gather information about your employees and about turnover before completing the questionnaire.

In this survey, we will be asking about headcount (filled and open positions), number of employees leaving the organization, and reasons for employees leaving. We will be asking these questions for each of the following job categories: supervisor, dispatch, EMT, part-time EMT, paramedic, and part-time paramedic. Headcount refers to the number of filled and open positions for each job category at the end of 2021. Filled positions refer to the number of employees in each job category that were on payroll at the end of 2021. For each job category, the number of filled positions should be added to the number of open positions at the end of 2021 to determine the total headcount.

The survey can be accessed by following the link below. It will open on July 5th, 2022, and close at end of day, July 15th, 2022.

https://johncarroll.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3gtyd4SaQnkevvU

Thank you,

Scott Moore, Esq.
Newton 360
Workforce Dynamics, Inc.
(781) 236-4411 office
(781) 771-9914 cellular
www.newton360.com

 

Bloomberg Radio | President Baird on the Workforce Shortage

Written by AAA Staff on . Posted in Human Resources, Legislative, Recruitment & Retention, Regulatory.

Fantastic Bloomberg Radio interview with President Shawn Baird covering key causes and impacts of the EMS workforce shortage.

Balance of Power Podcast • Browse all episodes
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2022-02-11/balance-of-power-ems-worker…
Balance of Power: EMS Worker Shortage Crisis (Radio)

Shawn Baird, President of the American Ambulance Association, discusses the shortage of emergency medical workers and paramedics. He spoke with Bloomberg’s David Westin.

Listen Now

AAA 2022 Legislative Priorities

Written by Shawn Baird on . Posted in Balance Billing, Cost Data Collection, Government Affairs, Legislative, Medicaid.

Yesterday, the American Ambulance Association Board of Directors approved the Association’s advocacy priorities for 2022. Our key initiatives reflect the challenges we face this year, including short-sighted threats to EMS balance billing, a worsening workforce shortage, the expiration of the temporary Medicare increases, and potential sequestration cuts.

We also continue to fight for you as you care for people first on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will sustain our efforts at securing additional funding for ground ambulance services to help address the increased costs of providing medical care and transport during the Public Health Emergency.

To achieve our collective goals, the AAA Board will need to mobilize the full voice of influence of the EMS community this year. If you have not already sent an email using the AAA advocacy system to your members of Congress, please do so today!

Staff will be reaching out to you at key points later in the year about letter writing for specific individual policy requests. But it is important that they hear from you now on all the top issues for ground ambulance services.  They are:

Top AAA Advocacy Priorities for 2022

EMS Workforce Shortage

With the persistent shortage of ground ambulance service field personnel raising to a crisis level with the COVID-19 pandemic, the AAA moved the issue to a top policy priority. The AAA is currently working with key Congressional Committees of jurisdiction to hold hearings on the EMS workforce shortage. We are also developing legislation to specifically target increasing access for ground ambulance service organizations to federal programs and funding for the retention and training of health care personnel.

Balance Billing

The AAA successfully educated the Congress on the role of local government oversight and other unique characteristics of providing ground ambulance service organizations. As a result, the Congress directed the establishment of a Ground Ambulance and Balance Billing Advisory Committee to address the issue. The Committee is in the process of being formed and then has 180 days in which to make recommendations to the Congress. The AAA will be involved with the Committee and advocating that the Congress implement policies that meet the needs of our members.

Additional COVID-19 Financial Assistance

The AAA is advocating for additional financial assistance for ground ambulance service organizations to help address the increased costs of labor and other higher costs associated with providing health care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Medicare Ambulance Relief

The temporary Medicare ambulance increases of 2% urban, 3% rural and the super rural bonus payment expire at the end of the year. The AAA will continue to push for passage of the provisions of the Preserving Access to Ground Ambulance Medical Services Act (S. 2037, H.R. 2454) before the provisions expire as well as for the adoption of language to ensure truly rural areas remain rural following changes to geographical designations based on the 2020 census.

Sequestration Cuts

The Congress delayed the additional 4% sequestration cut for only one yea. The AAA is working with other EMS and health care provider and supplier groups to permanently prevent the cut from going into effect as well as further extending the moratorium on the long-standing 2% cut.

Ambulance Cost Data Collection

With the 2-year delay of ambulance data collection due to the pandemic, the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC) will have little to no data to analyze in March 2023 in which to make recommendations to the Congress on Medicare ambulance payment policy and rates. The AAA is asking the Congress to push back the date of the MedPAC report and also expand the modified data collection timeline of two years to the intended four years.

On behalf of my fellow board members, I again thank you for your continued membership and participation. We look forward to serving you for many years to come.

We also encourage all of our AAA members to contact their members of Congress through our online advocacy tool. 

Should you have any questions regarding our advocacy priorities, please contact AAA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tristan North at tnorth@ambulance.org.

Call to Action: Write Your Members of Congress Today!

Written by AAA Staff on . Posted in Advocacy Priorities, Government Affairs, Legislative, Uncategorized.

Our nation’s EMS infrastructure is at risk. Ground ambulance service organizations are facing a financial crisis due to the lack of adequate reimbursement for their services and a crippling shortage of paramedics and EMTs. If Congress does not act soon, the situation will become worse with an additional 4% sequestration cut for all Medicare providers and suppliers including for ground ambulance services. Our nation’s 9-1-1 EMS infrastructure is at risk.

Place follow the link below to contact your members of Congress and ask that they protect ground emergency and non-emergency ambulance services in our communities.

Contact your Members of Congress

Workforce Resource: Total Compensation Statement & Calculation Sheet

Written by Samantha Hilker on . Posted in Employee Benefits, Human Resources.

Part of any successful recruitment and retention strategy is having a competitive compensation and benefits package. This is achieved most successfully by providing employees with a Total Compensation Statement.

A Total Compensation Statement communicates and provides an employee with a picture of the value of an employee’s compensation package, including wages and other costs which are typically shown in an employee’s paystub. However, a Total Compensation Statement shows the hidden costs, many paid by the employer on behalf of the employee, such as employer-paid healthcare, retirement, payroll taxes, and other supplements that employers provide. The purpose is to provide employees with the full picture of compensation and arm them with information about how your organization stacks up against your competitors.

Attached are two samples of Total Compensation Forms that can be used by AAA member companies. The forms offer the ability for our members to personalize by inserting their company logo.  These are typically issued on a quarterly, bi-annual, or yearly basis.

Total Compensation and Benefits Statement
The Total Compensation and Benefits Statement is a fillable PDF form that performs the calculations as you enter the different compensation-related items. The costs are shown in two columns, one for the employee wages and other costs, and the other for the often-hidden cost paid by the employer on the employee’s behalf.

Total Compensation Calculation Spreadsheet
The Total Compensation Calculation Spreadsheet is also a fillable PDF form that performs the calculations as you enter the different compensation-related items. There is a column that allows the employer to provide a Description of the benefit item listed. The costs are shown in two columns, one for the employee wages and other costs, and the other for the often-hidden cost paid by the employer on the employee’s behalf.

About the AAA Workforce Committee
The AAA Workforce Committee was formed by the AAA Board of Directors with the committee charge to evaluate and assist AAA member companies with the factors that impact the recruitment and retention of qualified EMS employees. If there are compensation or benefit items that we failed to include that you believe should be part of these documents, please let us know!
Send your feedback to hello@ambulance.org.

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