WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts yesterday joined U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in introducing legislation to preserve ambulance services by increasing Medicare reimbursement to rural and urban ambulance providers.

"Ambulance service providers are a critical part of our country’s first responder and health care systems. As we discuss how to improve health care in America, I can think of nothing more fundamental than ensuring that people have access to life-saving emergency ambulance care," Senator Roberts said.

Under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Congress authorized the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop a Medicare ambulance fee schedule. The rates developed under the fee schedule were significantly below what it cost many providers in Kansas to deliver services. In May 2007, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed this problem by determining that Medicare reimburses ambulance service providers on average 6 percent below their costs and 17 percent below cost in "super rural" areas.

Congress recognized this shortfall and included temporary Medicare ambulance relief provisions in both the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) and the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA). However, all of these provisions expire at the end of 2009.

Roberts’ bill, the Medicare Ambulance Access Preservation Act, would increase reimbursement to rural and urban ambulance suppliers by 6 percent, and super rural providers by 17 percent.

"Ambulance providers aren’t even breaking even in Medicare—Medicare reimburses ambulance providers below their costs for every person they transport," Roberts said. "Our legislation will develop a permanent Medicare relief package that will ensure not only continued availability of ambulance services, but also that ambulance service providers will be able to maintain standards of providing quality health care to patients."

Senator Roberts is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Senate Committee on Finance which has jurisdiction on Medicare, and is Co-Chairman of the Senate Rural Health Caucus.

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