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Portland committee backs bill to expand MaineCare reimbursement for on-site EMS care
Summary
The Legislative and Nominating Committee agreed to support LD 2119, which would broaden MaineCare reimbursement for community paramedicine, in-place treatments and alternate transport destinations; the fire chief said the change would open new care pathways and reduce unnecessary ER use.
The Portland Legislative and Nominating Committee voted to support LD 2119, a bipartisan bill that would expand MaineCare reimbursement for certain on-site ambulance services, after a presentation from the fire department.
"We currently are able to bill for cardiac arrests when we treat in place, but this would expand that to many other treatments that we can do in place," said Sean Donahue, a fire department official who oversees emergency medicine and training. Donahue said the bill also would allow community paramedicine teams and EMS to use ‘‘alternate destination’’ pathways so some patients in crisis could be taken to urgent care or other non-emergency sites instead of hospital emergency departments.
Donahue described the bill as locally useful after hospital closures elsewhere, saying a community paramedicine reimbursement pathway would help Portland’s mobile medical outreach efforts and could reduce costly transports. "It would open up alternative pathways to take people to places like urgent cares," he said.
Council members moved and concurred to submit testimony supporting LD 2119. A committee member said written testimony would be acceptable if scheduling made an in-person appearance difficult; Donahue said he likely would submit written testimony.
The committee’s support is limited to recommending testimony in favor; any final changes to state reimbursement, scope or appropriations would require follow-up at later legislative hearings. The committee did not record a named roll-call vote on the bill; members indicated concurrence in the meeting.
