As a part of an initiative to understand and guide the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Emergency Medical Services, we are conducting a brief 10 question survey, and your insights as front line EMS providers across the state of Tennessee are invaluable.
This survey aims to gather basic information about the current use and potential future applications of AI in our field. We are particularly interested in your personal experiences, insights, and any concerns you might have regarding the implementation of AI in EMS. Your perspectives will play a crucial role in guiding us towards appropriate and effective adoption of these technologies.
Please rest assured, your responses will be completely anonymous and therefore we will not ask for any personally identifying information. The insights derived from this survey will be instrumental in shaping the conversation at the upcoming February 2024 Tennessee Ambulance Service Association (TASA) Mid-winter Leadership Conference, where we will share the findings with EMS leaders from across the state.
Your participation in this survey will not only contribute to a better understanding of AI in TN EMS today but also help in paving the way for innovative, safe, and improved emergency medical services of tomorrow.
To participate, please use the follow link or QR code. We deeply appreciate your time and your commitment to advancing EMS in Tennessee. Thank you for considering this request, and we look forward to your valuable contribution.
The new EMS board has established a committee on committees and is putting it’s new committees together to help with board business. At present, we have the Clinical Issues Committee, Education Committee, Ambulance Committee, Air Ambulance Committee, and the Leadership and Advancement Committee (LAC).
The LAC is tasked not only with advancing the Leadership course, but helping to draw a roadmap to where they would like to see the profession in the next 10-20 years.
Other committees consist of the Committee on Pediatric Emergency Care (TCA 68-11-251) and the Telecommunications Committee (Created by the Office of EMS) — which advise and provide technical expertise but are independent of the board.
At it’s December meeting, the board approved draft language for the handling of the EMS training stipend. There will be a rulemaking hearing to approve the draft rules in the near future. The board also adopted recommendations from the Clinical Issues Committee, which include
policy on the Buckle Guard device. It is to be used as a restraint device and cannot be permanently affixed to cots and only used on a case by case basis.
The Air Q 3 and other supraglottic devices which are FDA approved can be carried as supplemental airway devices.
The LifeVac and dechoker devices are not FDA approved, only FDA registered and thereby can not be carried on ambulances—all equipment must be FDA approved.
Umbilical Vein Catheterization is not in the national scope of practice is not an approved skill.
The board approved the Education Committee’s EMT to Paramedic pathway (bypassing AEMT). This will go to rulemaking.
Out of state programs EMS must reapply to send students into Tennessee for clinical rotation. They will need a local higher-ed EMS program sponsor to be considered by the Education Committee and EMS Board for approval.
Training Stipend
Ambulance Services will be required to register as suppliers in the state Edison system in order to receive payments to pass through to their personnel. Information has been e-mailed to service directors. County and municipal services where the county or municipality are already set up as suppliers for the state in Edison should be okay. Others services will definitely need to register in order to receive payments through the state.
Aaron Kinser – Consultant At-Large
Aaron Kinser from Wilson County has been hired to coordinate and oversee the training stipend program. Kinser is the newest EMS Consultant-at-Large for the state. He comes from Wilson County, where he worked as a firefighter paramedic and was also a paramedic assistant instructor. Kinser is also a SCUBA Divemaster and heavily involved in training with TARS and the American Heart Association.
Kinser will be responsible for the oversight and coordination of the training stipend program in addition to assisting with other regulatory and oversight duties in the state.
NEMSIS
Data Manager Britnei Outland informs us the Tennessee Emergency Medical Services Information Systems (TNEMSIS) will be transitioning to NEMSIS (National EMS Information Systems) v3.5.0 in December 2023. This transition is to remain compliant with federal reporting standards/guidelines and continued integration of all reporting data to remain eligible for grants tied to NEMSIS compliance. Outland confirms that the Tennessee Office of EMS will continue to accept NEMSIS v3.4.0 data until June 30, 2024. The Dataset information is available on the NEMSIS website, which can be found at https://nemsis.org/statedata-managers/state-map-v3/tennessee. You Can also find NEMSIS on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NemsisTac.
Leadership
A pilot course on Leadership was held at the Williamson County EOC on October 31, 2023. The course is a collaboration among TEMSEA, TASA, and the Office of EMS. The course was led by multiple instructors, including Eric Clause, who is featured on the TEMSEA leadership podcast, and included input and interaction from several well-known leaders within the Tennessee EMS Community. The pilot rollout was a resounding success and will be offered as a pre-conference session at the TASA Mid-Winter conference at the Park Vista Hotel in Gatlinburg in February.
This course is a great introduction and refresher for supervisors, administrators, and others in leadership positions. It is also recommended for those aspiring to leadership roles within their organization or as they grow and develop in the profession. The course focuses on identifying key leadership traits and habits, preparing attendees for leadership roles, and working effectively with stakeholders to achieve success. The course will continue to evolve to meet the needs of participants and help them excel in their leadership roles. Leaders are made, not born.
Each year, TASA gives an opportunity to EMS individuals and services to be recognized by their peers in a statewide search for the best in our field. Anyone can nominate individuals or emergency medical services that they believe are the best of the best. EMS professional nominations easily submitted online. The following categories are recognized each year by TASA:
Jimmy Studdard EMT Award Larry Griffin Paramedic Award John Bond EMS Administrator Award Tommy Erwin Lifetime Achievement Award Bob Thomas ALS Service Award Dr. C. Robert Clark EMS Medical Director Award John Fitzsimmons EMS Advocate Award
Join Ambulance Cost Education expert, Michelle Anderson, at our upcoming remote workshop focused on the CMS Ground Ambulance Cost Data Collection requirement.
Virtual Cost Data Collection Workshop December 7th 10:00 am Central $49 for AAA Members | $99 for Non-Members
During this interactive workshop, Michelle will cover everything from important dates and how CMS cost data collection will impact our industry to scenarios and the practical application of tools and resources to ensure accuracy in submitting your data.
Attendees can expect to walk away with confidence in their ability to report on time and avoid penalties. Who should attend?
Agencies selected in Year 1 or 2 lists who followed a fiscal year and are now preparing to submit their 2022 data to CMS in 2023
Agencies selected in Year 3 or 4 lists collecting 2023 data to submit to CMS in 2024Directors, Officers, Billing Managers, or anyone responsible for their agency’s cost data collection process
As part of the upcoming Conference & Trade Show in Nashville, the American Ambulance Association will be providing a pre-conference workshop focused on the CMS Ground Ambulance Cost Data Collection.
Regular Price: $500.00
Member Price: $0.00
Your Price: $500.00
Join our Ambulance Cost Education experts at our 2024 AAA Annual Conference & Trade Show in Nashville, TN for this intensive session focused on the CMS Ground Ambulance Cost Data Collection requirement. Our ACE Faculty will cover everything from important dates and how CMS cost data collection will impact our industry to scenarios and the practical application of tools and resources to ensure accuracy in submitting your data.
Attendees can expect to walk away with confidence in their ability to report on time and avoid penalties.
Who should attend?
Agencies selected in Year 3 or 4 lists, collecting 2023 data to submit to CMS in 2024
Directors, Officers, Billing Managers, or anyone responsible for their agency’s cost data collection process
Anyone who wants to prepare for future ground ambulance cost data collection requirements
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Senate passed the FY2024 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Act, which included an amendment introduced by U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.) – members of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee – to protect rural veterans’ access to life-saving emergency medical transportation services.
The amendment would prohibit VA from implementing a rule to reduce reimbursement rates for special mode transportation providers, including ground and air ambulances, in FY2024. Under the current timeline, VA’s rule will go into effect in February 2024, which would lead to longer wait times for veterans during emergencies and disrupt the ambulance industry in Kansas and across the country.
“This amendment makes certain that veterans across the nation will continue to receive lifesaving care and transportation without disruption over the next year,” said Sen. Moran. “By stopping this rule from being implemented in February, we will allow more time for VA to do its due diligence in creating reasonable and commonsense parameters for resetting reimbursement rates for these life-saving services.”
“Emergency air and ground transportation services are a lifeline for Montanans when a medical emergency happens,” said Sen. Tester. “Our provision means these services can stay afloat so Montana veterans can continue receiving these lifesaving emergency services when they need it. VA still has to work to do to fix this reimbursement issue, and that’s why I’m continuing to push for our bipartisan VA Emergency Transportation Act.”
“Arkansas veterans rely on lifesaving transportation services when experiencing health care emergencies,” said Sen. Boozman. “Passage of this provision is critical to ensuring these heroes continue to have access to these crucial resources no matter where they live, and the operators are appropriately compensated for the care they deliver.”
The amendment was also co-sponsored by Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). It is also supported by Global Medical Response, Air Methods, the American Ambulance Association, the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians.
The SFY24 Q1 invoices have been mailed by TennCare (payments are due 11-29-2023). We are waiting on the payment reports to be completed (possibly by the end of this week). We will mail the payment reports as soon as we receive them from TennCare.
New Invoice Calculation Process Previous invoices were based on the most recent calendar year total of transports. That number was divided by 4 and then multiplied by $20.53 to get your quarterly invoice.
This fiscal year’s invoices are based on transports during the period 2 quarters behind. That number is multiplied by $20.00 to get your quarterly invoice. The current invoice is based on transports during SFY23 Q4 (May-June 2023).
The next quarterly invoice (expected late January-early February) will be based on transports during SFY24 Q1 (July-September 2023).
Ground Assessment Program Reminders
Qualifying transports that apply towards your quarterly invoices are based on an emergency response that resulted in a transport. These transports are derived from the Office of EMS TNEMSIS system. Per TN Code Annotated § 71-5-1506.
Policy Measures to Ensure Enforcement and Compliance — Penalties — Quarterly Transport Count Data The bureau has the authority to create policy measures that ensure the enforcement and compliance of this part. The bureau shall require an ambulance provider that fails to pay an assessment due under this part to pay the bureau, in addition to the assessment, a penalty of fifty dollars($50.00) per calendar day for each day the assessment remains unpaid infull after the date due.The bureau may waive penalties for a delinquent provider if the provider has entered into a payment plan approved by the bureau. If the provider fails to comply with the terms of the payment plan, then the bureau may reinstate the waived penalties. Other enforcementmeasures determined by the bureau include, but are not limited to,recoupments, withholding of future payments, and loss of Medicaid ID.
New Federal clarification that NSA doesn’t apply to ground ambulance aligns with longstanding PWW guidance
An upcoming Federal Register notice provides further clarification of the fact that ground ambulance services are not included in the Federal No Surprises Act, which prohibits balance billing for air ambulance services. The Feds’ latest statement on the subject says:
“The Departments have received questions about how the surprise billing protections under the No Surprises Act apply to ground ambulance services. In particular, the Departments understand that some plans and issuers have construed a statement in the preamble to the July 2021 interim final rules addressing when a participant, beneficiary, or enrollee is in a condition to receive notice and provide consent to waive surprise billing protections for post-stabilization services188 to mean that the No Surprises Act surprise billing protections apply to post stabilization inter-facility ground ambulance transports. The Departments do not interpret the No Surprises Act’s surprise billing provisions to apply to emergency or non-emergency ground ambulance services.“
(Emphasis added.) Although this Federal Register guidance is new, it is not new that the NSA has never applied to ground ambulance services. PWW has issued guidance since the NSA was first passed that it does not apply to ground ambulance services, and that insurers who were saying otherwise were simply wrong.
In our December 9, 2022 e-mail bulletin, PWW said: “The Federal No Surprises Act currently only prevents balance billing for air ambulance services.”
In our March 9, 2023 bulletin, PWW said: “the NSA does not currently apply to ground ambulance services – a fact that some commercial insurers have chosen to ignore.”
We’ve been clear and steadfast about the non-applicability of the NSA to ground ambulance services in all our communications since the law was first enacted – including at our abc360 conferences. Yet, some commercial insurers have improperly led ambulance services to believe otherwise, affecting the bottom line of many EMS organizations, who are already operating on thin margins. While Congress may choose to amend the NSA to make it applicable to ground ambulance services in the future, it is crystal clear that it does not apply now, and has never applied, to ground ambulance services.
Where you get your information matters. It is vital to stay up-to-date on the reliable sources of industry insight and analysis from PWW, your association partners, and other reliable sources. Don’t always accept what insurers and others tell you about your rights and obligations. Stay informed, and stay vigilant! CLICK HERE for full Federal Register notice.
The SFY24 Q1 invoices have been mailed by TennCare (payments are due 11-29-2023). We are waiting on the payment reports to be completed (possibly by the end of this week). We will mail the payment reports as soon as we receive them from TennCare.