Committee reviews bill to clarify use and distribution of ambulance reimbursement revenues

The Public Safety Committee on March 9 reviewed Expedited Bill 6-26, which would clarify how Montgomery County uses revenues from ambulance and emergency medical service transports reimbursed by private insurers and public payers. Council staff said the legislation is intended to align county practice with the county code after a 2025 inspector general report questioned prior contract-based disbursements.

"The law contemplates that 15% of the net EMST revenues are allocated annually through the council operating budget resolution to support the LFRDs," said Ms. Wellens, who briefed the committee on the bill’s history. She said the bill would explicitly allow the annual operating budget to authorize distributions to the authorized LFRD representative and to individual local fire and rescue departments and would permit the executive to enter into contracts to effectuate those distributions.

Committee members said they broadly supported cleaning up the statutory language. The chair noted that all three committee members were lead sponsors of the bill and that colleagues were co-sponsors. Russell Hartung, president of the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire Rescue Association, submitted suggested wording but said counsel advised pulling it back to avoid delaying the bill’s progress.

The staff memo cited no net fiscal impact to the county for the provision as currently drafted. The committee did not record a formal vote on the expedited bill during this work session; staff framed the measure as a corrective clarification to codify practices originally authorized in 2013 and to ensure that EMST revenues can be used for apparatus and facility support, volunteer training and recruitment, and related purposes.