Bellone Urges State Legislature To Pass EMS Protection Act

DIX HILLS, NY — Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on Thursday urged the New York State Legislature to pass the EMS Protection Act.

The bill would provide an alternative funding source for volunteer EMS personnel, which would take the burden off of local taxpayers. The legislation, sponsored by Democratic state Senator John Brooks, recently passed the state Senate but needs to get through the state Assembly. It would then be delivered to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, according to the state Senate's website.

Volunteer EMS services in New York are currently not able to recover costs for services and are forced to recoup their expenses from local taxpayers. All other forms of EMS service are able to get money back through insurance, Medicaid, and other sources, which leaves volunteer fire department ambulance services at a "severe disadvantage," according to the county.

"Every day, our EMS professionals are the first on the scene of a crisis performing lifesaving medical services," Bellone said. "This year, especially, we recognize the tremendous work that our EMS professionals and all of our other front-line workers have performed throughout this pandemic: planning, adopting and responding to take care of their citizens and all of our communities. They put their health and their safety at risk in the middle of an unknown, unprecedented, pandemic."

Words are not enough to thank them for what they've done not only during the pandemic, but daily, Bellone said. Suffolk County's push for the bill to pass comes during EMS Week.

Bellone called the burden on taxpayers to pay back fire departments' EMS services "abnormal." New York is the only state in the country where the volunteer fire department ambulance services are prohibited from billing their expenses, which costs the agencies and taxpayers millions of dollars each year, Bellone said.

"Luckily ... we have legislators in Albany trying to change that," Bellone said.

The county wants to avoid EMS operations slowing or halting due to a lack of funds, Bellone said.

"Seconds and minutes matter," he said. "We need more EMS service — not less."

The county has made more progress towards getting through the coronavirus pandemic, according to Bellone. The county's most recent positivity rate was less than 1 percent, while 65 percent of Suffolk residents have been vaccinated. The vaccination rate is higher in Nassau.