Task Force begins work on finding a way to pay to fix rural EMS crisis
News | Published on February 19, 2024 at 1:45pm CST
• Low pay, insufficient federal reimbursement has left Greater Minnesota with slow emergency response times.
By Mark Wasson
A Minnesota Capitol Correspondent
for Forum News Service
Following a tour of Greater Minnesota, members of the Rural EMS Task Force are now focused on how to pay to solve a crisis situation that has left many parts of the state with unacceptably high emergency response times.
“This isn’t a matter of if we fix this, it’s a matter of must because this is an absolute situation that affects all of us,” Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar, R-Duluth, said during a task force hearing Friday, Feb, 16. She said there’s a bipartisan need to fix the state’s EMS system.
No action was taken during Friday’s hearing, but a report that includes recommendations is expected to be submitted to the Legislature by Aug. 15, 2024.
The task force was formed following an Office of the Legislative Auditor report that highlighted issues with a system that has not changed since the 1980s despite changes in demographics and health care in general.
Task force members highlighted several issues they heard during a series of listening sessions this year in Winona, Mankato, Elbow Lake and Mountain Iron. Anong other things, the legislators heard that Medicare reimbursement rates do not cover enough of the costs of providing ambulance service, and that low pay makes it hard for the services to hire new employees and retain good ones.
What the task force heard was nothing new, Sen. Andrew Lang, R-Olivia, said during Friday’s hearing.
“We have an industry that’s struggling, we have an industry that needs help from the state,” he said. “It all boils down to money, we have to find the money. We probably have to find the money this year.”
Members floated ideas to make up for the lack of EMS funding, including increased taxes or even using the proceeds from an expected revenue boom from marijuana sales taxes.
“This has not been a trend that has really surprised people that have been paying attention,” Becca Huebsch, director of Emergency Medical Services and Emergency Preparedness for Perham Health, told Forum News Service in December 2023 . “But now it’s really coming to a breaking point where systems have been underpaid for so long, now they’ve used up their cash stores and they put off big purchases.”
In Perham, a town about 25 minutes from Detroit Lakes with a population of just slightly over 3,500, a projected $200,000 loss for 2023 is expected, according to Huebsch.
Beyond further stretching medical personnel in an already strained system that largely relies on volunteers outside metro areas, the cash and worker shortage has led to longer response times.
In Mountain Iron, a town of fewer than 3,000 people in St. Louis County, EMS response times have grown to as much as 90 minutes.
“In Greater Minnesota, the losses are so large that we’re facing a crisis in our communities,” Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown said during last Friday’s hearing.
