Dear TN EMS Services & Providers,
YOU’RE HELP IS NEEDED URGENTLY! The Tennessee General Assembly is working on the state budget and we need to make our voice heard! House Bill 1998/Senate Bill 2340 by Rep. Gary Hicks and Sen. Ken Yager would increase the Medicaid reimbursement rate for non-emergency runs from 67.5% to 100%. Your legislator needs to hear directly from you. Please feel free to forward this to coworkers and family and urge them to send the below. Every contact helps.
You can enter your address and find your legislators, and their contact information, here: https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/Apps/fml2022/search.aspx
There is also language below so that you can copy/paste the message with your personal details. Please be sure to include your full name and zip code.
COPY/PASTE THE BELOW EMAIL TO YOUR LEGISLATOR – Feel free to personalize your message and the positive impact this legislation will have for your service.
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Subject line: Please fund HB1998 / SB2340
Dear Senator / Rep. (Representative or Senator NAME),
Thank you for your service to the State of Tennessee. I’m writing today to ask that you support funding the increase in Medicaid reimbursement rate for non-emergency runs outlined in House Bill 1998 and Senate Bill 2340. Due to recent changes by the federal government, ambulance services like mine are seeing less reimbursement than ever before. Ambulance services are essential to our communities, and we often operate at a loss. These services are an important part of maintaining healthy communities.
Background details: Since 2018 Tennessee ground ambulance providers have participated in the Ground Ambulance Assessment Program. This program provided supplemental payments for both emergency and non-emergency ground ambulance transports to help offset the extremely low TennCare reimbursement rate. This program was a life-safer for many ambulance services were facing reduction in services and/or closure.
In February 2022, CMS communicated to TennCare that non-emergency ground ambulance transports should not be included in the ground ambulance assessment. This was a devastating blow to the ambulance services providing non-emergency ambulance services across the state. This has led to ambulance services again facing reduction in services, increases in local subsidies, and in some cases – facing closure. In addition, Managed Care Organization transportation brokers are experiencing increased difficulty in scheduling non-emergency transports for TennCare beneficiaries because of this change.
Increasing the current TennCare non-emergency reimbursement rates to 100% of published Medicare Fee Schedule would be a significant help reduce the impact of the recent lost supplemental payments.
Again, thank you for your service and your continued support of EMS services.
Thank you,
(YOUR NAME)
(YOUR TITLE)
(ZIP CODE)