By Laura French
WASHINGTON — The American Ambulance Association (AAA) is seeking responses for a survey about treatment in place protocols during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
The survey takes about seven minutes to complete and includes questions about local restrictions on EMS transports resulting from the pandemic, according to an AAA statement.
“CMS now has authority under certain circumstances related to the Public Health Emergency to waive the transport language set forth in the Social Security Act that it views as prohibiting the Medicare program from reimbursing ground ambulance services when there is no transport of the beneficiary,” the AAA statement read. “CMS will likely want to understand the scope and the documentation of ground ambulance services provided during the pandemic when there was a community-wide EMS protocol in place that prohibited transporting certain patients.”
Responses will aid the AAA in its discussions with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding reimbursement for non-transport services.