§33-25A-34. Ambulance services.

The Legislature finds that ambulance services in this state are performed by various volunteer emergency service squads, county operations and small businesses, which may lack the sophistication and expertise required to negotiate a contract with a health maintenance organization for the provision of ambulance services, and that the best interests of the citizens of the state require the continued development and preservation of an emergency medical system to serve all the citizens of the state, including those citizens who do not receive health care services through a health maintenance organization. Therefore, the commissioner shall promulgate legislative rules, pursuant to the provisions of article twenty-nine-a of this code, to regulate contracting for emergency medical services. The rules shall be promulgated as expeditiously as possible in order to be considered by the Legislature in the regular session in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven. The rules shall consider the following: Reimbursement for nonemergency transportation by nonparticipating providers and the appropriate use of 911 or community dispatching, as well as other items the commissioner may deem necessary.