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Take action: Tell Congress what EMS needs to battle COVID-19

NAEMT President Matt Zavadsky: Keep the pressure on Congress to ensure EMS personnel are covered in all applicable COVID-19 provisions

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Post on social media, share your stories, talk to your neighbors, talk to your city councils, call or write your local and state elected officials, and take 3 minutes to send a note to your congressional reps using the Online Legislative Service.

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The coronavirus war rages on and the casualties of EMS first responders are mounting.

As of this morning, 11,615 fire and EMS personnel have suffered an exposure to COVID-19; 5,161 are in quarantine and 406 have been diagnosed with the virus, according to the International Association of Fire Chief’s online tracker.

EMS providers are fighting as hard as we can to maintain effective services to our friends, families and the communities we serve. All of us in EMS now understand the gravity of the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, and its effect on our communities, our agencies, our lives, and the lives of our families, friends and colleagues.

PPE shortages, lack of priority COVID-19 testing for first responders, and, tragically, deaths of first responders related to the coronavirus are being reported by local and national media outlets.

Last week, NAEMT members, joined by other EMS professionals from across the country, participated in our Advocacy Request to Congress asking that the “Phase 3” federal COVID-19 legislation include direct support for EMS for priority supplies, testing and financial relief.

Over 15,000 emails were sent to members of Congress. NAEMT also sent a letter to key Congressional leaders and the President outlining our needs, published a national press release describing our dire situation, and conducted interviews with national press.

We made some progress, but the Phase 3 COVID bill passed by Congress and signed by the President last Friday did not provide direct funding relief or protection to our nation’s EMTs and paramedics.

It’s time to turn up the volume so that Congress and the President can clearly hear what we need!

Please join in the advocacy efforts to support our people, and our systems! Post on social media, share your stories, talk to your neighbors, talk to your city councils, call or write your local and state elected officials, and take 3 minutes to send a note to your congressional reps using the Online Legislative Service.

Let’s all keep the pressure on Congress to:

  • Give priority access to PPE for EMS personnel
  • Give priority COVID-19 testing for EMS personnel and their families
  • Give priority access to EMS agencies for vital prehospital medications
  • Reimburse EMTs and paramedics for the cost of daycare for EMS personnel with children
  • Reimburse all EMS agencies for overtime wages paid to employees and additional costs necessary to provide emergency medical services during the public health pandemic
  • Provide direct funding to all EMS agencies for ventilators and other needed medical equipment
  • Provide direct funding to EMS to purchase ambulances
  • Allow use of the A0998 HCPCS code for EMS to respond and transport to the appropriate healthcare facility, not necessarily the hospital, freeing up hospital beds.
  • Ensure all EMS personnel are covered in all applicable COVID-19 provisions by specifically including Emergency Medical Services Providers and Personnel

The battle is fierce, but together we can win this war!

Take action.

Matt Zavadsky, MS-HSA, EMT, is the chief transformation officer at MedStar Mobile Healthcare, the exclusive emergency and non-emergency Public Utility Model EMS system for Fort Worth and 14 other cities in North Texas that provides service to 436 square miles and more than 1 million residents and responds to over 170,000 calls a year with a fleet of 65 ambulances. MedStar is a high-performance, high-value Emergency Medical Services system, providing advanced clinical care with high economic efficiency.

MedStar is one of the most well-known EMS agencies in the county, and operates a high-performance system with no tax subsidy, and the recipient of the EMS World/NAEMT Paid EMS system of the Year, and the only agency to be named an EMS10 Innovator by JEMS Magazine.

He is also the co-author of the book “Mobile Integrated Healthcare – Approach to Implementation” published by Jones and Bartlett Publishing.

He has 42 years’ experience in EMS and holds a master’s degree in Health Service Administration with a Graduate Certificate in Health Care Data Management. Matt is a frequent speaker at national conferences and has done consulting in numerous EMS issues, specializing in high-performance EMS operations, finance, mobile integrated healthcare, public/media relations, public policy, transformative economic strategies, and EMS research.

Matt is also immediate past president of the National Association of EMTs, and chairs their EMS Economics Committee.