State EMS grant program proposed
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A pair of state lawmakers want to create a new state-funded grant program for EMS companies.
Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Saratoga Springs, and Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Kingston, have introduced legislation (A.11718/S.10689) to establish the Volunteer and Municipal Ambulance Services grant program to support the departments' capital equipment needs.
Grants would be awarded on a competitive basis through the state Health Department. No eligible entity would be able to receive more than 10% of the available funding in each grant application – an attempt by legislators to keep departments in the state's bigger cities from dominating grant receipts.
"New York’s rural emergency medical services (EMS) system is in crisis," Woerner and Hinchey wrote in their legislative justification. "It faces severe funding challenges from inadequate reimbursement rates and overreliance on strained municipal funding, staffing difficulties and declining volunteerism, and infrastructure and communications problems such as aging medical equipment and vehicles or poor cell phone and radio service."
The state's Rural Ambulance Task Force released its newest report on the state's EMS system earlier this year. Among its findings are that too many EMS providers aren't investing in ambulances, medical equipment and 24/7 capabilities, which is something that Woerner and Hinchey want to use state grant money to help remedy.
The Volunteer Fire Infrastructure & Response Equipment (V-FIRE) Grant Program is a state-funded $25,000,000 competitive grant program that supports the enhancement of the security and safety of the citizens of New York State by providing critical funding to strengthen volunteer fire departments and districts statewide. Eligible projects include construction, renovation, or purchase costs for critical facilities (buildings, training facilities, etc.) that support fire operations, or fire service equipment to upgrade and improve response capabilities.
The V-FIRE program has released a request for applications for $25 million in funding for the 2025-26 funding cycle. Hinchey and Woerner envision an EMS version of the V-Fire program that could pay for acquisition or maintenance of buildings, equipment, technology or vehicles for EMS companies or local governments that apply on behalf of EMS providers.
"Capital costs are a particularly difficult problem. The need for large-scale purchases, whether in specialized vehicles or to acquire or repair customized buildings, can disrupt rural municipal budgets that are often under $5 million for all purposes, and with EMS funding often falling under fire districts whose annual funding is under $ 1M. At the same time, private equity consolidation of both private ambulance companies and ambulance manufacturers has driven up the cost for local governments to either contract out services or to purchase or repair their own equipment for municipal companies," Hinchey and Woerner wrote. "Fortunately, there are successful existing models we can learn from to assist our financially stressed rural EMS companies."