Download state budget conference committee plan to raid county

STATE BUDGET CONFERENCE COMMITTEE PLAN
TO RAID COUNTY MADDY FUNDS
TALKING POINTS
Maddy Funds have been available to counties to support emergency medical services
systems, including funds to pay emergency department physicians and hospitals for
emergency medical care provided to patients who have no payer source nor funds to pay
for care.
The Emergency Medical Administrators Association of California (EMSAAC) which
represents all counties in California, strongly opposes the State Budget Conference
Committee’s plan to take these essential funds from counties. The Committee’s action
was taken without any advance notice nor opportunity to provide input and clearly
demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the importance of retaining the
Maddy Funds to continue to operate emergency medical services systems. The
elimination of this funding will devastate a county’s ability to provide emergency
medical service programs to all those who call 911, insured and uninsured alike. In
emergency medical services, there is no differentiation in service based upon payer or
lack of payer. The plan to move these funds to the State in order to obtain a Medi-CAL
match provides nothing to address the burden of counties charged with developing,
implementing, monitoring, evaluating and providing medical oversight to emergency
medical services systems of care. In fact, the action will devastate emergency medical
services programs designed to ensure equal access to high quality, well supervised
emergency medical care.
This raid of Maddy Funds will also add yet another unfair burden on the healthcare safety
net providers, at a time when both MediCare and Medi-CAL are proposing to again
reduce rates for reimbursement.
This continuous loss of reimbursement to the Emergency Healthcare Community is
unsustainable, and will lead to the loss of life, unnecessary suffering and a catastrophic
failure of this critical service.
Examples of EMS functions that will be severely limited or eliminated include the
following:
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Oversight and coordination of public and private sector paramedics and EMTs
Physician oversight for clinical practice by paramedics and EMTs, public and
private sectors
Implementation, coordination, and medical oversight of specialty care EMS
programs, such cardiac hospitals, stroke hospitals, trauma adult and pediatric
hospitals
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Elimination and/or significant curtailment of paramedic and EMT services in rural
areas where Maddy Funds are used to train, supply medications and medical
equipment for volunteer fire department EMS responders
Disaster medical response and multi-casualty incident coordination among
paramedics, EMTs and hospitals, regional, state and federal resources
Certification and discipline of EMTs, including collection of State required fees
for EMT certification
Accreditation of all paramedics, public and private, to ensure knowledge and
competency in local EMS programs
Authorization and coordination of all hospitals that receive 911 patients
Coordination of countywide EMS communications
Licensing and inspections of ambulances
Examples of impact of eliminating emergency physician funding:
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Inability to maintain emergency department physician call panels
Prolonged emergency department wait times
Prolonged ambulance turn-around times in emergency departments, often referred
to as “bed delay” or “wall time”
Resultant delayed ambulance responses to incoming 911 calls due to long patient
turn-around times in emergency departments
A local EMS agency is required by the Health & Safety Code for each county to
authorize paramedic services. Many local EMS agencies depend upon Maddy Funds to
maintain services and physician oversight for an EMS system. Loss of the funds may
result in some counties eliminating their EMS agency and reverting to a lower level of
medical care for 911 responses.
3/11/11