Sponsors (9)
Official title: To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to create a model, and to direct the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to carry out a study and report with respect to Medicare payment for emergency medical services.
Introduced May 15, 2025 by Richard Hudson · Last progress May 15, 2025
The bill aims to strengthen EMS capacity, quality, and coordination—potentially improving emergency care and reducing ambulance delays—while increasing Medicare spending and imposing new reporting and transition burdens on providers and administrators.
Medicare beneficiaries are likely to receive faster, better‑equipped, and higher‑quality EMS care because the bill funds supplemental payments for life‑saving medications/blood products and encourages MedPAC‑recommended quality improvements.
EMS agencies — including rural and underserved providers — get dedicated Medicare funding to cover acquisition, storage, transport, and wastage costs for supplies and related software, reducing financial strain and improving preparedness.
Hospitals, EMS, and patients could see fewer ambulance offload delays and improved patient flow because the bill requires clearer EMTALA 'wall‑time' guidance within one year.
Taxpayers and the Medicare program could face materially higher costs if the bill funds supplemental EMS payments now and/or if MedPAC recommends expanded Medicare payments later.
Small and rural EMS providers may face significant administrative and IT burdens from new requirements to collect and share detailed patient and outcome data (ICD‑10, NEMSIS elements), increasing operating costs and diverting staff time.
Hospitals and EMS agencies could incur new compliance costs and operational burdens if Congress adopts MedPAC‑recommended quality‑assurance conditions of participation or additional reporting requirements.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Adds a multi‑year CMMI demonstration to pay EMS agencies supplemental Medicare funds for lifesaving meds, blood products, and data integration, and requires a MedPAC report on EMS payments.
Creates a new multi‑year Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) demonstration—the “When Minutes Count for EMS Patients Model”—to give supplemental Medicare payments to participating ground and air emergency medical services (EMS) agencies for maintaining lifesaving medications, blood products, and related data/software integration, with geographic and urban/rural representation and a post‑model report to Congress. It also directs MedPAC to report to Congress within two years on Medicare payment for EMS, including evaluations of EMS medical directors, EMS professionals, quality assurance, and payment model recommendations.