Bill > HB2402

This bill makes several changes to Arizona's laws regarding ambulance services and emergency medical services. It clarifies that the bureau of emergency medical services and trauma system is established within the department to coordinate statewide emergency medical services and trauma care, and it requires local emergency medical services coordinating systems to submit regional plans to the director, the speaker of the house, and the president of the senate. The bill also expands exemptions for ambulances from other states and allows registered ambulances from Arizona to respond to major catastrophes, natural disasters, or wildland fires in the state if there are insufficient local resources. A new section requires ambulance services to report detailed information about their calls, including dispatch and on-scene times, any refusals of mutual aid requests, medication errors, and unintended patient injuries, with this data to be made publicly available by the department after redacting personal information; failure to comply with these reporting requirements can result in a civil penalty of up to $500. The bill also emphasizes that evidence-based quality patient care should be the priority for decision-making by the director, and it mandates that response time calculations begin when a public safety answering point contacts an ambulance service and end upon arrival at the scene, with this data to be publicly available. Furthermore, it introduces an online portal for certificate of necessity applications and a public dashboard for ambulance service response times, and it clarifies that the director cannot require an applicant to purchase equipment before approving a certificate of necessity if they can demonstrate the ability to provide the required services. The bill also allows for the issuance of certificates of necessity to cities, towns, or fire districts in areas with less than ten thousand people or where a current certificate holder has not met requirements for at least twelve months, and it establishes a civil penalty of $1,500 for non-compliance with certificate of necessity requirements, with an appeal process available. Finally, it updates provisions related to the terms of certificates of necessity, requiring decisions on renewals to be based on current data, and clarifies that service areas for political subdivisions expand with their jurisdictional boundaries unless specifically excluded.

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https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/84165