Provides that authorities having control of a fire department or fire company which provides emergency medical services may establish fees and charges for services.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
534--B
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 6, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. JONES, RA, LAVINE, WOERNER, DiPIETRO, BYRNE,
STECK, COOK, JEAN-PIERRE, NORRIS, GALEF, FAHY, BRONSON, LUPARDO,
ABINANTI, BARRETT, SOLAGES, GOODELL, HUNTER, PHEFFER AMATO, COLTON,
B. MILLER, BUTTENSCHON, BRABENEC, DeSTEFANO, BURKE, WALSH, MONTESANO,
SMULLEN, MANKTELOW, SAYEGH, TAGUE, JACOBSON, MIKULIN, HAWLEY, WALLACE,
STIRPE, ZEBROWSKI, STERN, GUNTHER, McMAHON, ASHBY, SALKA, GRIFFIN,
DURSO, SIMPSON, LAWLER, SILLITTI, GANDOLFO, J. D. RIVERA, LUNSFORD,
KELLES, BURDICK, ANGELINO, J. M. GIGLIO, RAMOS, FITZPATRICK, DARLING,
BROWN, JOYNER, HEVESI, SMITH -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. BYRNES,
ENGLEBRIGHT, M. MILLER -- read once and referred to the Committee on
Local Governments -- reported and referred to the Committee on Ways
and Means -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee -- recommitted to the
Committee on Ways and Means in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2
-- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended
and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the general municipal law and the town law, in relation
to authorizing fees and charges for emergency medical services
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 4 of section 209-b of the general municipal
2 law, as amended by chapter 476 of the laws of 2018, is amended to read
3 as follows:
4 4. Fees and charges [prohibited] authorized. [Emergency] (a) Subject
5 to the restrictions set forth in paragraph (d) of this subdivision,
6 emergency and general ambulance service, including emergency medical
7 service as defined in section three thousand one of the public health
8 law, authorized pursuant to this section [shall] may be furnished with-
9 out cost to the person served; provided, however, that the authorities
10 having control of a fire department or fire company that have authorized
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03579-11-2
A. 534--B 2
1 such fire department or fire company to provide such service or services
2 may fix a schedule of fees or charges to be paid by persons requesting
3 such service or services. The authorities having control of a fire
4 department or fire company may provide for the collection of fees and
5 charges or may formulate rules and regulations for the collection there-
6 of by the fire department or fire company. When fees and charges are
7 authorized pursuant to this subdivision, the fees and charges collected
8 shall be disbursed in accordance with a written contract entered into
9 between the authority having control of a fire department or fire compa-
10 ny and the fire department or fire company itself. The acceptance by
11 any firefighter of any personal remuneration or gratuity, directly or
12 indirectly, from a person served shall be a ground for his or her expul-
13 sion or suspension as a member of the fire department or fire company.
14 (b) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (a) of this subdivi-
15 sion, a basic life support service which establishes a schedule of fees
16 for service shall enter into a contract with a provider or providers of
17 advanced life support services to provide such advanced life support
18 services. Such contract shall at a minimum establish the fees for
19 advanced life support services and the means by which said provider will
20 be reimbursed when the ambulance service bills for emergency medical
21 service.
22 (c) An emergency and general ambulance service, including emergency
23 medical service as defined in section three thousand one of the public
24 health law, authorized pursuant to this section which does not issue a
25 bill for its services and which requests an Advanced Life Support (ALS)
26 intercept from another ambulance service furnishing service in an area
27 that is designated as a rural area by any law or regulation of the
28 state, or that is located in a rural census tract of a metropolitan
29 statistical area (as determined under the most recent Goldsmith Modifi-
30 cation), shall pay the ambulance service providing the ALS intercept an
31 ALS Rural Intercept Fee at rates negotiated between the providers of
32 such services. In the absence of any agreed upon rates, the service
33 receiving such ALS intercept shall pay the service providing the ALS
34 intercept for such services at the usual and customary charge, which
35 shall not be excessive or unreasonable.
36 (d) An emergency and general ambulance service, including emergency
37 medical service as defined in section three thousand one of the public
38 health law, authorized pursuant to this section to fix a schedule of
39 fees or charges to be paid by persons requesting such service or
40 services, may apply such fees and charges only within such service's
41 primary response territory as assigned and evidenced by a valid ambu-
42 lance service certificate issued by the commissioner of health pursuant
43 to section three thousand five of the public health law, on or before
44 January first, two thousand twenty-two.
45 (e) An emergency and general ambulance service, including emergency
46 medical service as defined in section three thousand one of the public
47 health law, authorized pursuant to this section shall not directly issue
48 a bill for its services to any uninsured recipient of such services.
49 § 2. Paragraph (e) of subdivision 1 of section 122-b of the general
50 municipal law, as amended by chapter 303 of the laws of 1980, is amended
51 to read as follows:
52 (e) [No] A contract [shall] may be entered into pursuant to the
53 provisions of this section for the services of an emergency rescue and
54 first aid squad of a fire department or fire company which is subject to
55 the provisions of section two hundred nine-b of [the general municipal
56 law] this chapter;
A. 534--B 3
1 § 3. Subdivision 1 of section 184 of the town law, as amended by chap-
2 ter 599 of the laws of 1994, is amended to read as follows:
3 1. Whenever the town board shall have established or extended a fire
4 protection district pursuant to the provisions of this article, the town
5 board shall provide for the furnishing of fire protection within the
6 district and for that purpose may (a) contract with any city, village,
7 fire district or incorporated fire company maintaining adequate and
8 suitable apparatus and appliances for the furnishing of fire protection
9 in such district or (b) may acquire by gift or purchase such apparatus
10 and appliances for use in such district and may contract with any city,
11 village, fire district or incorporated fire company for operation, main-
12 tenance, and repair of the same and for the furnishing of fire
13 protection in such district, or both. The contract may also provide for
14 the furnishing of (1) emergency service in case of accidents, calamities
15 or other emergencies in connection with which the services of firefight-
16 ers would be required and (2) general ambulance service subject, howev-
17 er, to the provisions of section two hundred nine-b of the general
18 municipal law. In the event that the fire department or fire company
19 furnishing fire protection within the district pursuant to contract does
20 not maintain and operate an ambulance then a separate contract may be
21 made for the furnishing within the district of emergency ambulance
22 service or general ambulance service, or both, with any city, village or
23 fire district the fire department of which, or with an incorporated fire
24 company having its headquarters outside the district which, maintains
25 and operates an ambulance subject, however, in the case of general ambu-
26 lance service, to the provisions of section two hundred nine-b of the
27 general municipal law, or with an ambulance service, certified or regis-
28 tered pursuant to article thirty of the public health law[, which is not
29 organized under the provisions of section two hundred nine-b of the
30 general municipal law]. Any such contract with any such ambulance
31 service permitted herein shall be subject to the provisions of this
32 section.
33 § 4. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
34 have become a law and shall apply to health care claims submitted on or
35 after such date.