National Ambulance Coalition - October 2004
On behalf of the NC EMS Administrators Reimbursement Committee, Jeff
White, Johnston Ambulance Service, and Kim Stanley, EMS M
On behalf of the NC EMS Administrators Reimbursement
Committee, Jeff White, Johnston Ambulance Service, and Kim Stanley, EMS
Management & Consultants, met with the National Ambulance Coalition (NAC)
in Washington, DC.
The purpose of the NAC is to ensure fair and equitable
Medicare reimbursement for all fifty states.
As you know, the Medicare Fee Schedule was implemented to provide a fee
structure that would be more equitably distributed among all 50 states. The recent Medicare Modernization Act (MMA)
implemented a new regional fee schedule for those states that were adversely
impacted by the Medicare Fee Schedule.
These fee increases were as high as 39% for some states, and provides
for a longer transition period to the national fee schedule. The 17 states that were positively impacted
by the Medicare Fee Schedule were not affected by these increases. The NAC membership includes 14 of the 17
states that have not been included in recent fee schedule increases.
Another provision of the MMA requires the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a cost study for providing ambulance
services in those regions that saw a reduction in payment rates. In response to this provision, the NAC met
with members of the GAO to petition the study to include all 50 states, in
which they have agreed. In addition, the
coalition mailed letters to the members of the Senate and House of
Representatives to encourage their support of fair and equitable reimbursement
for EMS services.
The GAO study has a deadline of 2007 to complete their
study. This study will provide a full
cost analysis for providing ambulance service among the different types of
providers.
During the Washington, DC
visit, Jeff and Kim met with the NC members of Congress to establish a point-of-contact,
request that they sign the Dear Colleague Letters to the GAO and to encourage
their support of legislation that will increase federal reimbursement for EMS
services.
As a result, a total of 24 Senators have signed the letter,
including Senator Dole from North Carolina.
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