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Senate committee expands mobile integrated health grant eligibility to counties, EMS and hospitals
Summary
An amendment to House Bill 1051 adds counties, certified EMS provider organizations and hospitals as eligible applicants for mobile integrated health grants. Proponents said the change will broaden access to community paramedicine and nonemergency care; the committee passed the bill as amended, 12–0.
House Bill 1051 was amended to add counties, emergency medical service provider organizations certified by the EMS Commission, and hospitals as eligible applicants for mobile integrated health grants, sponsor Representative Pressell said at a Senate Public Health Committee hearing.
The amendment, described by legislative staff and supporters as Amendment 3, also included carve-outs to avoid direct competition between local units and hospitals applying for the same grant dollars.
Luke McNamee of the Indiana Hospital Association said hospitals often partner with local units to deliver nonemergency services and supported the expansion because hospitals can sometimes serve where local units lack capacity. "If one of those local units didn't have the ability or interest, and the hospital maybe had the infrastructure in place to make that partnership happen, that be an option," McNamee said.
Speakers representing firefighters, EMS associations and municipal fire chiefs described mobile integrated health and community paramedicine programs that provide nonemergency care and behavioral health services and urged support. Nathaniel "Nate" Metz, a paramedic and small-business owner who runs community paramedicine programs in Tippecanoe County, said his company served more than 21,000 patients in such programs since 2013 and that the amendment would help diverse organizational types access startup grants.
Senators adopted the amendment by consent and later voted to report the bill as amended. The clerk recorded the roll call as 12 ayes, 0 nays; the chair announced "12 to 0 as amended."
