Ambulance operators seek $2.6 billion in pandemic relief, say emergency medical services stretched to breaking point

"Ambulance services in the U.S. have been pushed to a 'breaking point' as the country stares down another surge in coronavirus cases, advocates warn," Hayley Fowler reports for McClatchy Newspapers. "Without additional funding, they fear the industry is on the brink of collapse."

In a Nov. 25 open letter to the Department of Health and Human Services, Aarron Reinert, president of the American Ambulance Association, said emergency medical services are under serious strain because of an increase in calls and lack of federal funding during the pandemic, Fowler reports.

"The letter seeks $43,500 per ambulance, or $2.62 billion for ground ambulance service providers, from the Provider Relief Fund — a $175 billion coffer established for hospitals and health care providers under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act," Fowler reports. "Ground ambulance providers were allocated $350 million under the Provider Relief Fund, the American Ambulance Association said. Nursing homes and rural hospitals, by comparison, received $7.4 billion and $11 billion, respectively, the letter states."

According to the AAA, private ambulance services, which mostly serve small, local businesses, "account for 28 percent of all emergency services nationwide, an in rural areas with no fire departments, EMS-only services account for about 65% of all responders," Fowler reports. "But those companies reportedly received almost no funding from grants associated with Federal Emergency Management Agency" for staffing for adequate response. "Funding for personal protective equipment from state and local coffers has also been virtually nonexistent, according to the letter."

Even before the pandemic, rural areas often had trouble accessing adequate emergency medical services.