Billing for EMS Services

If you or a loved one have ever been transported by an ambulance, you might have found that your insurance company and ambulance service provider do not have a contractual relationship (i.e., the ambulance service may not be in your insurance company’s “network”). Seeking to better understand the lack of network agreements between insurance and ambulance service providers, the Indiana General Assembly adopted House Bill 1314 in 2022, requiring both insurance and ambulance service providers to maintain records of failed network contract negotiations, including reasons why the negotiations failed. Although this legislation prioritized analysis of barriers preventing network agreements by individual providers, its final version passed without a requirement for the findings to be reported to any state agency for analysis, thus creating a missing link for lawmakers who wished to study and address the situation.  

During the 2023 legislative session, Trans-Care Ambulance utilized the RJL Solutions Government Relations team to supplement, rather than supplant, HB 1314 from 2022.Trans-Care sought legislation to fix the missing link by requiring insurance and ambulance providers to report these findings, which they were already maintaining, to the Indiana Department of Insurance (IDOI) for collection, analysis and distribution to the Indiana General Assembly. Meeting with key legislators to share the industry’s perspective, promote the need for greater transparency from all parties and highlight the importance of the issue to Hoosiers across the state, RJL Solutions shepherded Trans-Care’s proposal from start to finish. 

HB1583 passed unanimously in both the House and Senate and was enacted on July 1,2023. The final language requires IDOI to submit a summary of the reports received by insurance and ambulance providers to the Interim Study Committee on Public Health, Behavioral Health and Human Services in 2024. 

The legislation in its entirety can be found here.