Law creates new Office of Emergency Management Services to provide improved leadership

A new law creates the Office of Emergency Management Service and appropriates $24 million in emergency aid to ambulance services and $6 million for a pilot program in certain rural locations to improve response time and expand life-support services.

Sponsored by Rep. John Huot (DFL-Rosemount) and Sen. Judy Seeberger (DFL-Afton), the law is in response to 2022 state auditor’s report that identified ineffective leadership at the Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board, including insufficient oversight, outdated service areas, and sustainability challenges.

The new office will be led by a governor-appointed director who may license and regulate ambulance services in the state, establish and modify primary service areas, register and regulate medical response units, certify emergency medical technicians and paramedics of all levels, approve their education programs, and investigate complaints about and impose disciplinary action on ambulance services and their personnel and emergency medical responders.

Effective Jan. 1, 2025, the law also creates divisions for medical services, ambulance services, and emergency medical service providers, each headed by a deputy director, and three advisory councils to provide recommendations on emergency medical services, physicians involved in such services, and providers of labor and ambulances.

The Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board must establish and oversee a pilot program in Otter Tail and Grant counties and another in St. Louis County. In this “sprint medic” model, an equipped paramedic would roam the service area, ready to respond to emergency calls immediately, while the partnering primary ambulance service travels to the scene in an ambulance. The law appropriates $6 million in fiscal year 2025 for the program. The pilot program will expire June 30, 2027.

Ambulance services must apply for emergency aid by Sept. 16, 2024, providing the number of emergency medical service responses in their service area in 2023, including those that were provided by a specialized life support service, and the square mileage of their service area on Jan. 1, 2024.

Eligible ambulance services may apply for financial aid for operational and capital expenses under the new law. Totaling $24 million, the state will dispense the aid by Dec. 1, 2024.

HF4738*/SF4835/CH122

HF4738* / SF4835 / CH122