MONTGOMERY — Legislation mandating minimum reimbursement rates for health insurers to pay emergency ambulance services passed the House Insurance Committee on Tuesday.
The bill by Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) would regulate emergency ambulance services in the state by imposing requirements on health insurers' reimbursement for ambulance services.
The bill would prohibit "surprise billing" of insurance enrollees by providing that the reimbursement requirements be accepted as payment in full. A ground ambulance provider could directly charge an individual for no more than the in-network cost-sharing amount under an insurance contract.
According to a fiscal note, the bill could increase the obligations of the Public Education Employees' Health Insurance Board by an estimated $1.6 million annually and the State Employees' Insurance Board by an estimated $640,000 due to the minimum reimbursement rate set by the bill for health insurers to pay in-network and out-of-network ground ambulance providers.
“We want to make sure that we have a good 9-1-1 service that when you call it that you can get an ambulance that’s going to be able to come, and the ambulance service is going to be treated right in terms of the reimbursements that they get,” Singleton said at the public hearing on Tuesday.
The bill is opposed by the Alabama Farmers Federation (ALFA). They recently began offering health plans approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Kay Ivey during the 2025 session.
“Rural EMS is in a crisis. We don’t dispute that, but this bill, by its own design, does not solve that problem. It puts this mandate on a single group of insureds, and this is the same group that’s struggling now to afford premiums,” Preston Roberts, ALFA external affairs department assistant director, said during the public hearing.
The bill has already passed the Senate and now heads to the House for their consideration.
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