Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Activities Funded by the medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program

This paper describes the EMS-related projects that the 45 states receiving funding from the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Program proposed to conduct in fiscal year 2004-2005. Since the first full year of funding, the number and range of EMS improvement activities proposed has increased substantially. Because of the variability across states in the specifics of EMS activities proposed in grant applications, a method was sought that would create a logical framework for classifying activities, in order to better understand the types of EMS challenges that states are trying to address with Flex funding. The project team identified the Rural and Frontier EMS Agenda for the Future (R/F Agenda) as an appropriate guide document for cataloging and describing state proposed activities. The EMS activities were assigned to one or more of fourteen EMS attributes from the R/F Agenda. State Flex grant funds are not sufficient to ameliorate all rural EMS problems. Use of the R/F Agenda for classifying state Flex activities not only allows for identification of EMS problem areas that are most frequently being addressed with the use of Flex grant funds, but also identifies those challenges that likely need to be addressed through other mechanisms. This report will provide the EMS, rural health, and federal policy constituencies with an overview of the extent to which nationally recognized rural EMS challenges are being addressed with Flex program funding.