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Representative Backer seeks 10% Medicaid rate boost for ambulance services; members call for broader funding package
Summary
House File 715 would raise ambulance reimbursement rates by 10 percent, the author said; the committee heard provider testimony about long-term underpayment and urged pairing rate increases with broader efforts to fund readiness and rural sustainability. The bill was laid over as amended.
Representative Backer presented House File 715 on Feb. 24 proposing a 10 percent increase in ambulance reimbursement rates to improve provider finances. Backer said ambulance reimbursements have not been increased since 2016 and that the 10 percent boost is part of the committee’s package of bills to address EMS sustainability.
Buck McAlpin of the Minnesota Ambulance Association testified that ambulance services face increasingly skewed payer mixes dominated by Medicaid and Medicare, leaving providers unpaid for a substantial share of costs. McAlpin said the legislature previously created a paramedic scholarship and that national Medicare “extenders” and federal policy changes also matter to provider revenue; he warned that any federal cuts to medical assistance would be “devastating to the ambulance industry.” Representative Hewitt cautioned that a percentage increase by itself will not fully address readiness costs and that other bills under consideration — including targeted grants for Greater Minnesota — should be part of a package.
Representative Backer said the 10 percent increase is a first step and the committee will consider this alongside other measures such as targeted grants, training pipelines and volunteer support. House File 715 as amended was laid over for possible omnibus inclusion.
