Rep. Marty Causer, a Republican who represents Potter, McKean, and parts of Cameron county, spoke about his HB1491 on Bill Break this week.

If passed, the legislation would create an Office of EMS Commissioner in Pennsylvania. This would allow an EMS professional to be part of the governor’s executive cabinet. Pennsylvania has a state fire commissioner and a state police commissioner, but the current office of EMS is within the Health Department.

Causer says that if an EMS professional was at the executive level, it would give the industry more direct access to the governor and the general assembly to talk about issues and feedback from the industry.

Pennsylvania’s EMS industry is a semi-private, semi-public service that is facing continued workforce shortages and financial crisis. Many EMS agencies rely on volunteers and payments from insurance to cover their costs.

The industry has become more regulated in recent years, which has put burdens on organizations that have no good way to pay for the expenses of meeting those regulations.

 

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

 

KARA JEFFERS, STATE GOVERNMENT REPORTER: 

"Welcome to Harrisburg. I'm Kara Jeffers here with Representative Marty Causer. And we are going to do a bill breakdown. You have something for an office of the EMS. Is that correct?"
 
REP. MARTY CAUSER (R): "That’s correct. Emergency medical services in our state is in a state of crisis and in rural areas, it's beyond crisis. So I've proposed House Bill 1491, which would create an independent office of EMS commissioner to really elevate the voices of emergency medical services here in our state, to really tackle this issue.
 
JEFFERS: "What is the issue that EMS is facing when they don't have that officer, don't have that advocate at the state level?"
 
CAUSER: "Well they're really struggling to keep the doors open to provide service in our communities. We've seen over 50 agencies close just in our state in the last year. And really they need stronger voices at the state capitol. There are many legislators that certainly support them. We've taken many steps to help them, but we have to do more and we must do more here at our state."
 
"We have a state fire commissioner, we have a state police commissioner. And the Bureau of EMS is buried five layers deep in bureaucracy, in the Department of Health. We need a state EMS commissioner to sit at the table with the governor so that we actually have a voice at the executive branch level."
 
JEFFERS: "Have you heard of any opposition from this, or can you think of any concerns that people might raise with this?"
 
CAUSER: "I've heard really strong support from the EMS community. The Ambulance Association of Pennsylvania worked with me to draft the bill and provided, you know, some really great feedback. I haven't heard any negative opinions yet, but it's early to tell. I want the support, so I want to hear everyone’s feedback to make sure we are elevating our EMS voices."
 
JEFFERS: "And then lastly, taxpayer money. Is there any cost to this? Is there any benefit the taxpayers will get that from a fiscal level?"
 
CAUSER: "Well, that really remains to be seen. You know, we have an office currently, like I said, within the Department of Health. This is basically elevating the stature of the office so that they have a seat at the table at the Cabinet level. So I don't see a big fiscal impact. It's using revenue that we're using right now to support EMS."
 
"But as I said, it's really elevating the voices and and bringing a seat at the table at the executive level so that we can do more to help these EMS agencies provide these lifesaving services in our communities."
 
JEFFERS: "Thank you so much for your time. This is legislation that doesn't always get the spotlight, and that is a wrap on our bill break."