NASEMSO Responds to Ambulance “Borders in the Sky”

(Falls Church, VA) – Portions of the air medical industry have recently made calls for action against a U.S. Senate Bill (S. 2812) introduced to provide consumer protections stating that it would “essentially create borders in the sky, preventing air ambulances from crossing state lines to get patients to the nearest, most appropriate medical facility.”

The National Association of State Emergency Medical Service Officials (NASEMSO) represents the collective voice of each state office charged with  oversight and  regulation of emergency medical services (EMS), including the promulgation of rules and regulations. EMS can be simply defined as care and transportation of the sick and injured.

State EMS Offices have effectively regulated the medical aspects of the air ambulance industry to ensure that the  public  remains  safe  and  the  appropriate  level of  care  is  available during transportation when the patient’s condition requires care at another facility, even in another state. When adverse  weather exists, the  ground ambulance  industry  takes that same patient across that same state line to the same facility.

States currently have the ability to regulate all aspects of the ground ambulance industry and this has not prevented ground ambulances from crossing state lines to get the patient to the nearest, most appropriate medical facility.

State EMS Offices have appropriately maintained their focus on the patient’s needs and have a demonstrated pattern of effectively and appropriately regulating care and medical transportation that must cross state lines to get the patient to the nearest, most appropriate medical facility. Rules and regulations promulgated by the State’s EMS Office have not and will not create a border in the sky and they have not and will not prevent ambulances from getting patients to the nearest, most appropriate medical facility.