Page 157 - BWM Dec 2012

December 2012 | Business World Magazine | 157
is to build and foster relationships with key
departments within the federal government
that have jurisdiction over EMS. For exam-
ple, NAEMT has built a strong relationship
with the U.S. Department of Homeland Se-
curity (DHS) – including the Federal Emer-
gencyManagement Agency (FEMA) – since
EMS is a critical part of the national public
safety network. “In times of natural or man-
made disasters, EMS is an important com-
ponent of that public safety net,” Lane says.
“We build those relationships and we work
with those agencies to make sure the regu-
lations that they’re establishing or revising
make sense.”
The association also works actively
with members of the U.S. Congress on legis-
lation critical to NAEMT members. Two of
the bills they’re focused on currently are the
Medicare Ambulance Access Preservation
Act of 2011 and the Veterans to Paramed-
ics Transition Act. “When military medics
return to civilian life, they need to either get
re-licensed in EMS or they need to become
licensed,” Lane explains. “They have all the
skills, but aren’t licensed at the state level.”
The third major piece of legislation
of concern to NAEMT at the moment, ac-
cording to Lane, is the Field EMS Quality,
Innovation, and Cost Effectiveness Improve-
ments Act of 2011. “This bill includes fund-
ing for local EMS agencies so they can hire,
train and equip their EMS practitioners to
serve their community to achieve surge ca-
pacity in the event of a disaster.”
Last year NAEMT collaborated with