EMS Week | We Care. For Everyone. By Gary Harvat, CMTE, EMT-P (RET)* Resilience: The Heart of EMS As EMS Week 2025 approaches, one word stands out—resilience. Defined as the ability to withstand and recover quickly from difficulties, resilience is the very essence of EMS professionals across the world today. Despite the misconceptions—whether […]
3 More Months – Medicare Extenders Extended! By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., EMT-B, CADS* H.R. 1968 The Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, to fund the federal government through the end of the 2025 fiscal year ending with September 30th was passed just as last week’s legislative session closed on Friday evening. Included in […]
MEDICARE AMBULANCE ADD-ON PAYMENTS By Ed Marasco, MPM, CMTE, EMT-P (Ret.) The Ambulance Community in the United States has been under siege since COVID. From the operational challenges associated with a global pandemic to the difficulties with staffing to the ongoing reimbursement shortfalls, it is not a good time for EMS and Ambulance Service […]
Government Stop-Gap Measure Extends Add-On Payments 3203 In the eleventh hour, just prior to a looming federal government shutdown, Congress was able to pass the American Relief Act of 2025. The Act provided funding to keep the federal government afloat through the end of this year and extending through the first quarter of the […]
Breaking News! CMS Releases First GADCS Report By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., EMT-B, CADS* Year 1/Year 2 Cohort Analysis The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in cooperation with the RAND Health Care Corporation has issued the long-awaited first report detailing the results of the Year 1 and Year 2 Cohort Analysis of the […]
Medicare Add-On Payment Brinksmanship – AGAIN!! By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., EMT-B, CADS* Tired of the Game! Speaking entirely for myself, I’m really tired of the game of brinksmanship surrounding the Medicare add-on payments to the Medicare ambulance fee schedule. I know I share the sentiments of the majority of the American ambulance industry when […]
CMS Brings Early Christmas Gift in Addition of PHBT to ALS2 Level Transports By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., EMT-B, CADS* Final Rule Published The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Final Rule for the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule on November 1, 2024, bringing an early Christmas gift to the ambulance industry. The […]
Cooling Inflation Equals a Smaller AIF for 2025 By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., EMT-B, CADS* The Results Are In! The results are in! No, not the 2024 presidential election results, yet… we mean the results of the annual Ambulance Inflation Factor (AIF) calculation for 2025 have been announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services […]
Reimbursement Options for EMS Response to Helene and Milton By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., EMT-B, CADS* Historic Storms Hurricanes Helene and Milton have shocked the states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee by bringing a one-two punch of storm-related public health emergencies and sparking a massive relief-effort response. As of writing this blog, […]
CMS Releases First GADCS Reports- Part II, Medicare FFS Claims Analysis By Chuck Humphrey, B.A., EMT-B, CADS* Ground Ambulance Industry Trends In this Part II blog post, we’ll look at the second of two reports recently released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) using the newly acquired data from the Ground […]
