Montana bill would create statewide ambulance assessment to boost Medicaid reimbursements

Helena — Representative Ed Buttry, sponsor of House Bill 56, told the House Health and Human Services Committee that the bill would create a statewide ambulance provider assessment to generate federal Medicaid matching funds and raise reimbursement rates for emergency medical services.

“This is a big bill,” Representative Ed Buttry said, describing it as “an effort to provide for the financial security and longevity of our ambulance service providers across the state.”

The bill would require ambulance providers to pay an assessment equal to 5.75% of their net operating revenue into a new Ambulance Medicaid Reimbursement Special Revenue Account. The state would submit the program to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for approval; federal matching funds would be deposited into the special account and then used to increase Medicaid reimbursements to ambulance providers and to cover administration costs. Representative Buttry told the committee the fiscal note shows no net impact to the general fund.

Why it matters: Proponents said the proposal aims to address chronic underfunding and workforce shortages that threaten ground ambulance coverage in rural and frontier parts of Montana. “This is lifeline funding that we desperately need,” Don Whalen, manager of Missoula ambulance service and president of the Montana Ambulance…