When Minutes Count for Emergency Medical Patients Act
Sponsored By: Representative Hudson
Introduced
Summary
A new Medicare payment model for emergency medical services would pay EMS agencies extra to keep and administer specified life‑saving medications and blood products so patients receive immediate treatment during transport.
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- EMS agencies: Eligible emergency medical services agencies can apply for monthly or quarterly lump‑sum supplemental payments that cover total costs for stocking medications and blood, storage, transport, administration, wastage, and required data systems. Payment rates must account for maintaining sufficient supply, including at least double average medication acquisition in the model’s first year.
- Patients and clinicians: Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries may get faster access to critical drugs and blood during ambulance transport, and the model will track effects on care quality, patient outcomes, and adverse events from medication shortages.
- Rural and underserved communities: The model must include participants across all HHS regions and diverse settings, including rural, frontier, suburban, and urban areas to measure whether increased supplies improve care and save lives for underserved groups.
- Oversight and timing: Participants must report detailed clinical and claims data and the model runs for at least five years, with the agency required to report analyses to Congress within one year after the model ends.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
Extra Medicare support for EMS supplies
This bill would create a Medicare model that pays extra to ground and air ambulances for certain life‑saving drugs and blood given in the field. HHS would set lump‑sum rates paid monthly or quarterly, on top of regular Medicare ambulance payments. Rates would be based on total costs, including a medication‑supply amount set at least at double the first‑year average acquisition cost for the listed drugs. They would also count per‑product blood costs (buying, storage, ground and air transport, use, waste, and admin), the supply needed to serve all patients in the agency’s area (not just Medicare), and needed software and data links. The model would run for at least five years.
Guidance to cut emergency room wall time
HHS would, within one year, issue guidance to hospital emergency departments on their duty under EMTALA to reduce “wall time.” “Wall time” would mean time beyond 30 minutes after EMS hands a patient to hospital staff able to provide care. One year later, HHS would report to Congress on whether delays fell and suggest any needed laws.
Which drugs count and who can join
EMS agencies would need to apply to HHS and show they can send required data on quality and outcomes. Applications would include ICD‑10 codes and specific NEMSIS 3.5 disposition fields. HHS would pick at least one agency in each HHS region and, if possible, at least one of each EMS agency type, across rural, frontier, suburban, and urban areas. The model would cover nine drugs—epinephrine, lidocaine, calcium, 0.9% saline, lactated Ringers, albuterol, midazolam, 10% dextrose, and fentanyl—and blood products, including whole blood and plasma‑derived products. These rules would decide who can join and what items the extra payments cover.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Hudson
NC • R
Cosponsors
Dingell
MI • D
Sponsored 5/15/2025
Tenney
NY • R
Sponsored 6/3/2025
Gottheimer
NJ • D
Sponsored 2/23/2026
Del. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large]
DC • D
Sponsored 3/3/2026
Mackenzie
PA • R
Sponsored 3/16/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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