(Source: MIRS.news, Published 11/20/2024) Roughly 160 city-run ambulance services would see as much as $70 million in federal dollars for transporting Medicare and Medicaid patients under a program a House committee last week supported having Michigan join.  

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Ground Emergency Medical Transport (GEMT) is a voluntary program that has been a “game changer” for participating agencies in other states, Sterling Heights Fire Chief Kevin Edmonds told the House Local Government and Municipal Finance Committee.  

In his city, Edmonds said Medicaid typically only covers 25% of the costs associated with transporting a patient. Medicaid and Medicare patients make up about 50% of their total billings, he said, leaving the city with a lot of uncompensated costs.  

The GEMT program will cover 63% of these costs, meaning an extra $900,000 a year for his EMS system in Sterling Heights.  

“This funding . . . (could) add personnel resources and establish a mobile integrated health program to help curb our rising EMS costs,” Edmonds told the committee.  

Eight Democrats joined Rep. Dale Zorn (R-Onsted) in sending HB 5695 , which creates a Michigan GEMT program managed by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), to the House floor. Under the legislation, communities would have the option of joining the program. 

Four Republicans abstained on the vote, after Rep. Dave Prestin (R-Cedar River), a paramedic and volunteer firefighter, raised concerns that the program wouldn’t benefit private EMS providers or those smaller operations that don’t have the staff to put together the paperwork needed to qualify for the money.  

The Legislature needs to help cash-strapped ambulance providers, but this program can’t be the signal sent by the state House, he argued.  

Two-thirds of ambulance providers don’t get a benefit from the GEMT program, according to Angela Madden of the Michigan Association of Ambulance Services (MAAS).  Private and publicly owned EMS providers are both experiencing staffing shortages, “skyrocketing costs for vehicles and suppliers” and an increase in demand for services, she said.  

“The best way to support EMS in Michigan is to initiate programs that help all patients,” Madden said. “This is even more critical, as we already have a couple of very serious issues that are making it more difficult for agencies to serve their communities.”  

Yet, the argument that an optional low-cost program that could mean $15 to $20 million for the Detroit Fire Department and hundreds of thousands of dollars for other municipalities shouldn’t be pursued because it doesn’t help everyone, didn’t square with Rep. Veronica A. PAIZ (D-Harper Woods).  

Rep. Jenn Hill (D-Marquette) saw the discussion over HB 5695 as a “this-and-that" discussion, not a “this-or-that" debate. She noted that the EMS provider for the state prisons Up North is on the brink of going under after the state contractor who is supposed to pay ambulances for transporting prisoners went bankrupt.  

“This is actually maybe more a plea for help,” Hill said.   

Bill sponsor, Rep. Mike McFall (D-Hazel Park) framed the debate into one about how Michigan shouldn’t leave reimbursement money on the table because it’s not going out to everyone.  

“If there’s a program at the federal level that we qualify for, that we can bring money back here to our local municipalities, I think we should apply for that stuff every single time,” he said.