In rural areas, emergency medical services are bleeding money. And that’s just part of the problem.
The Legislature’s joint Task Force on Emergency Medical Services reconvened Friday, Feb. 16, to discuss what they heard about the EMS crisis after conducting four listening sessions throughout the state.
It was created late last year in response to a 2022 report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor that raised serious concerns about the regulation and viability of the state’s ambulance services.
State Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, told the task force that northeast Minnesota’s EMS systems have lost $14 million.
But ahead of the task force’s hearing Friday morning, state Rep. Dave Lislegard, DFL-Aurora, said funding is only one part of the equation.
“When you take a deep dive into this crisis, you really see that it’s so much more than just money,” he said.
Many of the issues are tied to Minnesota’s EMS system, which was implemented in the 1980s. Fewer volunteers and stagnant reimbursement rates have made the system outdated for most rural communities.
The task force noted in Friday’s meeting that staffing shortages in the field are also contributing to the crisis.
Recommendations included changing the state’s EMS regulatory board into a department, licensing policy changes and introducing a new service model to address the growing number of non-emergency calls that EMS teams are receiving.
The task force also discussed designating EMS as an essential service, which would increase the amount of support the state government would have to provide. But to do that, there would need to be a way to fund it.
The task force chairs asked the other members to look into possible funding sources and to expect bills to be introduced in this session based on some of the recommendations made.
Lislegard said he hopes the task force will help people understand the need to address the crisis.
“It is an issue that needs to have full understanding of where we’re at, what the problem is — multiple problems — and then what the solution is both short term and long term,” he said.
