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 gutted the bill by removing provisions that would have required counties and municipalities to provide minimum levels of emergency medical services and mandated the Department of Health to establish service standards, instead narrowing the bill to focus solely on creating a task force to study EMS funding with an added requirement to review the Rural Health Transformation program.
The amendment makes minor wording refinements to the task force's charge, changing "funding mechanisms to support counties and municipalities in the provision of" emergency medical services to "fund counties and municipalities for the provision of" — a stylistic clarification that doesn't substantively alter the bill's purpose of studying EMS funding as an essential service.
The amendment adds a new duty requiring the task force to examine ambulance service payment policies and reimbursement standards for out-of-network emergency medical services, which broadens the bill's focus beyond funding mechanisms to include specific payment reform issues.
This change converts the bill from an engrossed House version to its enrolled final form, removing markup indicators and adding official certification signatures and enactment language required for passage into law. The substantive content of the Emergency Medical Services Funding Task Force remains unchanged—no policy details were altered.