SB89 — create a task force to study the provision of emergency medical services as an essential service and the funding thereof.
What changed between bill versions as it moved through the Legislature.
The amendment removes provisions that would have required counties and municipalities to provide minimum levels of emergency medical services with state-defined standards, NARROWING the bill to focus solely on a task force to study EMS funding mechanisms and the Rural Health Transformation program without imposing new service mandates.
The amendment made minor wording refinements to the task force's charge, changing "funding mechanisms to support" to "fund" and "in" to "for," which slightly streamlines the language without altering the bill's core purpose of studying emergency medical services funding. The amendment also updated an internal bill reference number from 26.404.13 to 26.404.14, a technical correction.
The amendment adds a new requirement for the task force to examine policies for ambulance service payments and reimbursement standards for out-of-network emergency medical services, which BROADENS the bill's scope beyond general funding mechanisms to address specific payment and reimbursement issues. The amendment also updates the bill's designation from Senate to House Health and Human Services, reflecting its movement through the legislative process.
The amendment converted the bill from its engrossed (House-revised) form to its enrolled (final) form by removing markup language and adding official certification signatures and filing blocks. This is a purely procedural change that finalizes the bill for gubernatorial action without altering any of the substantive requirements for the Emergency Medical Services Funding Task Force.