Minnesota lawmakers are raising concerns about the financial challenges facing rural ambulance services, with some services at risk of closing without additional funding.
State Senator Rob Kupec (DFL-Moorhead) says staffing and reimbursement are two major issues.
“The overall problem for a lot of these EMS is reimbursement. They do not get enough money that comes back from the federal government in particular if they have a large Medicaid population to even cover the runs that they are going on.”
Kupec says the state needs to find additional ways to support rural ambulance services. Last session, lawmakers approved $30 million for emergency medical services. Of that, $24 million provided one-time aid to eligible ambulance services for operational and capital expenses, while $6 million funded a rural alternative EMS response pilot program.
The legislation also created the Office of Emergency Medical Services to oversee the state’s EMS system.
Kupec says the funding is a good start, but more support will be needed. He says ambulance closures could have broader impacts on rural communities.
“Do older people then move out of Barnesville because I need to be guaranteed that if something happens to me that somebody’s there to come take care of me and so you see populations begin to spiral down so there are lots of other things interconnected in these rural communities just with their ambulance service.”
