Legislative session ends with minimal EMS impact

By JOHN HULTGREN
Kentucky EMS Connection

FRANKFORT — The Kentucky House stuck to its rules for a change and shut down the 2009 General Assembly a day early Thursday, ignoring requests from the governor and the Senate to take action on some pending bills.

Gov. Steve Beshear said last night that he may call a special session to continue work on some bills.

The quick and quiet end was in stark contrast the end of last year's session, where wall clocks were stopped at midnight so the session could continue past the legal ending date.

The only EMS-related bill that passed, and which has already been signed into law by Gov. Beshear on March 24, was House Bill 383. An interscholastic athletics bill, House Bill 383 would require a local school board to request local emergency medical services personnel be on-site for a high school athletic activity if no AED is available on-site. An amendment added in the House prohibits emergency medical services personnel or the employer or provider from being held liable if they are requested to attend a high school athletic event and are unable to attend.

House Bill 415, introduced by Rep. Robert Damron on behalf of the Kentucky Ambulance Providers Association to extend the state line of duty death benefit to government EMS workers, was immediately sent to the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee and never received a hearing. KAPA's original intent was to extend the benefit to all workers on a state-licensed ambulance, public and private, but their recommended language was changed in the legislature prior to the bill being submitted.

Senate Bill 30, which would have restricted the release of 911 communications recordings, passed the Senate but never received a hearing in the House.

House Bill 223, which would have subjected air medical transports to the state sales tax, never received a hearing. This is the second year this bill has been introduced, and although legislators say it was never intended to tax air ambulance transports, that still would have been the result of the language as submitted. Air ambulance providers say their billing software is not equipped to accommodate sales tax and Medicare, Medicaid, and most insurance companies would probably not reimburse or pay state sales tax.

Senate Bill 91 and House Bill 538, written to address patient choice of hospital destination, never made it past the committees they were assigned to.

Senate Bill 137, which would have provided limited immunity from civil liability to certain medical providers, and House Bill 434, which would have provided Good Samaritan protection for all persons rendering emergency services or medical care during a declared emergency, never made it out of their assigned committees. Numerous legislators have said they were concerned with extending any immunity for first responders.

House Bill 119, which would have reduced the number of emergency medical technicians to one in smaller mines and which was opposed by KAPA, almost made it out of the House before being returned to the House Rules Committee. KAPA's concern was that the one mine EMT would be left without coverage if they were injured.

Senate Bill 52, related to posting air medical phone numbers in mines and establishing landing zone coordinates, passed the Senate but was never taken up in the House.

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