STATE OF NEW YORK
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3975--A
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 1, 2013
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Introduced by Sen. ROBACH -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Health -- recommitted to
the Committee on Health in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 --
committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and
recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to enacting the good
samaritan ambulance act of 2014
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as "the good
2 samaritan ambulance act of 2014".
3 § 2. Section 3001 of the public health law is amended by adding a new
4 subdivision 22 to read as follows:
5 22. "Operate" means with respect to an ambulance receiving patients.
6 § 3. Subdivision 1 of section 3010 of the public health law, as
7 amended by chapter 588 of the laws of 1993, is amended to read as
8 follows:
9 1. Every ambulance service certificate or statement of registration
10 issued under this article shall specify the primary territory within
11 which the ambulance service shall be permitted to operate. An ambulance
12 service shall receive patients only within the primary territory speci-
13 fied on its ambulance service certificate or statement of registration,
14 except: (a) when receiving a patient which it initially transported to a
15 facility or location outside its primary territory; (b) as required for
16 the fulfillment of a mutual aid agreement authorized by the regional
17 council; (c) upon express approval of the department and the appropriate
18 regional emergency medical services council for a maximum of sixty days
19 if necessary to meet an emergency need; provided that in order to
20 continue such operation beyond the sixty day maximum period necessary to
21 meet an emergency need, the ambulance service must satisfy the require-
22 ments of this article, regarding determination of public need and spec-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07744-02-4
S. 3975--A 2
1 ification of the primary territory on the ambulance service certificate
2 or statement of registration; [or] (d) an ambulance service or advanced
3 life support first response service organization formed to serve the
4 need for the provision of emergency medical services in accordance with
5 the religious convictions of a religious denomination may serve such
6 needs in an area adjacent to such primary territory and, while respond-
7 ing to a call for such service, the needs of other residents of such
8 area at the emergency scene; (e) any agency receiving a report of a life
9 threatening medical emergency requiring emergency medical services that
10 in good faith concludes, on the basis of information available at the
11 time, that the agency having primary responsibility for the territory
12 will be delayed, and such delay may unnecessarily escalate or exacerbate
13 the emergency, shall not be subject to any sanction for operating
14 outside its primary territory, provided, that, it: attempts to notify
15 the agency having primary responsibility for that territory of the emer-
16 gency and of its response; has the resources available to respond to the
17 emergency; and is not cancelled either in route or on the scene by an
18 agency or dispatcher having primary responsibility for the territory; or
19 (f) if an agency having primary responsibility for a territory avails
20 itself of the resources, equipment, or personnel of an agency responding
21 to an emergency outside the responding agency's primary territory, then
22 the agency having primary responsibility for the territory will be
23 deemed to have made a request for mutual aid pursuant to a mutual aid
24 agreement and the agency responding outside of its primary territory
25 will not be the subject of any administrative sanction for operating
26 outside its primary territory; provided that (g) nothing contained in
27 this subdivision shall impose a legal duty on any agency to respond
28 outside of its primary territory and any such response shall be solely
29 at the discretion of the agency. Any ambulance service seeking to oper-
30 ate in more than one region shall make application to each appropriate
31 regional council. Whenever an application is made simultaneously to more
32 than one regional council, the applications submitted to the regional
33 councils shall be identical, or copies of each application shall be
34 submitted to all the regional councils involved.
35 § 4. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
36 have become a law; provided, however, that effective immediately, the
37 addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary
38 for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized
39 and directed to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
