Senate committee advances trio of EMS bills to expand treat‑in‑place protocols, create EMS advisory authority and set a funding formula

A package of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) bills moved forward in the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee after extended policy discussion about governance, clinical safety and funding equity.

Representative Lee Johnson led discussion of three measures: (1) House Bill 12‑85, which allows the Department of Health’s emergency medical advisory committee to create defined clinician‑approved protocols exempting some low‑acuity 911 calls from the statutorily required telehealth physician contact for treat‑in‑place billing; (2) House Bill 17‑67, which restructures the existing EMS advisory council into a smaller, physician‑and‑provider‑heavy council with explicit authority over EMS protocols and adjudication; and (3) House Bill 18‑41, which establishes a county‑tiered formula and guardrails for distributing potential EMS grant funding modeled loosely after Arkansas’s fire funding allocation.

On HB 12‑85, proponents described practical barriers ambulance services face when minor complaints trigger telehealth requirements that can be technically difficult in the field; the proposed solution is a limited, enumerated set of physician‑approved protocols that services may adopt and the ability to petition the advisory committee for additional protocols. One senator asked for the companion governance bill to appear so the committee could be sure the advisory panel has statutory clarity; the sponsor agreed to temporarily pull HB 12‑85 earlier in the hearing and later reintroduced it after the companion governance bill was considered.

HB 17‑67 drew questions about the proposed council composition and the balance between paramedic voices and physicians. Sponsors said the 11‑member advisory council would include physicians (including an EMS medical director), paramedics, air‑medical representation, military and fire‑based EMS representatives, clinicians and a consumer member. Sponsors stressed the council would not eliminate medical‑director oversight at the service level: physicians who serve as medical directors for local EMS services retain authority to approve protocols for their services. The bill passed on a committee voice vote.

HB 18‑41 lays out a five‑tier county grouping based on population and call volume, and a percentage allocation to each tier in a hypothetical grant distribution. Sponsors said the scheme was designed to be equitable to sparsely populated counties and to tie any future grants to performance and use‑limitations; no funding was attached to the bill. Committee members supported placing administration of any future grant pool under the EMS advisory structure discussed in HB 17‑67. HB 18‑41 passed on a committee voice vote.

Votes and outcomes

• HB 12‑85 (telehealth protocol exemptions): motion to pass; passed on committee voice vote. • HB 17‑67 (EMS advisory council, governance changes): motion to pass; passed on committee voice vote. • HB 18‑41 (county‑tiered EMS funding formula): motion to pass as amended; passed on committee voice vote.

Why it matters

Supporters framed the package as a pragmatic set of technical fixes: reducing unnecessary telehealth friction for ambulance crews, improving the timeliness and clinical fit of EMS governance, and preparing an equitable funding mechanism if state or federal EMS funds become available. Questions from some members focused on legislative oversight, the council’s statutory authority, and preserving medical‑director control at the service level.

Committee actions included a temporary hold and then reintroduction of telemedicine protocol language to ensure the new advisory council’s statutory authority was in place before the exemption authority is operationalized.