Conference committee pauses change to EMS staffing in HB 2280 after rural officials raise concerns

A Kansas legislative conference committee discussed proposed changes to House Bill 2280 on Tuesday that would allow ambulance services in certain rural counties to operate with one certified EMS provider and one driver, and asked conferees to meet and report back.

The change under consideration would strike language tied to inter-facility transfers and add a definition of "public place," and a related amendment would limit registration of defibrillators to devices located in public places. Jenna (committee staff) told the committee the House had added the content and the Senate had made a couple of amendments, including the definition of public place and the inter-facility transfer language.

Joe House, executive director of the Emergency Medical Services Board, told the committee that one of the lines on page 6 (lines 37–38) was an oversight and that the language they were trying to narrow to "medical interventions" did not include the contested lines. "They're not necessarily medical interventions, which is what we were trying to whittle that down to, so just human error is where the reason it didn't come through originally on the Bill," House said.

On a separate item the board asked the committee to revert language on line 18 to current statute. House said the term "ambulance service" is a defined term and using two different definitions in the same law could cause problems; he also described an existing variance process the board uses to allow single-provider responses in low-population counties. "You can do it within minutes. We've had eight services be approved for that, operating, they love the process," House said.

Senator Owens urged the committee to give local chiefs latitude to decide whether a single certified provider and a driver is appropriate in their communities. "When we're talking about EMS response, time is critical," Owens said, describing his 17 years of service as an EMT and fire captain and arguing that requiring two certified EMTs can delay transport in volunteer departments.

Senator Clifford described a rural example to underscore the practical problem: an ambulance traveled 20 miles to respond to a call in a town of 300 and the lone EMT could not leave to transport the patient. Clifford said that local officials should be able to make decisions based on local circumstances.

Representative Ruiz and other members noted the variance process and asked conferees to consider whether the variance is a one-time approval or can be left to counties; Ruiz said the variance steps are quick. The committee agreed to ask the two parties to meet and discuss the matter and to return to the conference committee with recommendations.

No formal roll-call vote on the staffing language was recorded in the transcript; the committee instead directed conferees to confer and report back to the committee. The committee also indicated agreement with removing the two lines on page 6 and with reverting line 18 to the current statutory language pending the conferees' discussion.

Next steps: conferees will meet to discuss the variance process and the proposed statutory language and return to the conference committee with a report.