MONTGOMERY — Legislation mandating minimum reimbursement rates for health insurers to pay emergency ambulance services passed the Senate by a 27-2 margin on Tuesday.
The bill by Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) would regulate emergency ambulance services in the state by imposing requirements on reimbursement by health insurers 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.
"I think this bill is really a bill about a matter of life and death," Singleton said. "When you start talking about not only in urban areas but when you're living in rural areas, it becomes a problem when you can't get ambulance services especially with hospitals closing down on a daily and weekly basis."
State Sen. Larry Stutts (R-Tuscumbia) voted against the bill.
"We're cost-shifting more of the costs to a smaller percentage of the people and we're shifting it to the people that are trying to pay for everybody else," Stutts said. "I understand that ambulance services operate at a loss a lot of times. They struggle to make ends meet. They're needed in rural areas. I fully understand that but I'm saying this bill unduly shifts the costs to a very small percentage of the people."
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