Farmington-Backed Ambulance Bill Clears Committee [Updated]

Firefighters, town managers from across the state, Farmington state Rep. Mike Demicco and Director of Fire and Rescue Services Mary-Ellen Harper have offered testimony and made visit after visit to the Capitol to voice their support for HB 6518.  

On Friday, the bill passed out of the Public Health Committee and was referred to the Legislative Commissioner’s Office. Demicco sits on the committee and Farmington/New Britain Sen. Terry Gerratana is co-chairman.    

The bill, a compilation of a proposal authored by Demicco, and rolled together with several others on the topic of emergency services, was proposed to allow municipalities to choose their ambulance service provider.   

The committee vote was 26-1 in favor of the bill but it did not come out as it went in. Language on the bill was rewritten, removing language that would have made the changes. 

Harper said advocates are hopeful that the language can again be changed to allow for municipal choice.   

“Some Republicans expressed disappointment, feeling that it didn’t go far enough and that are things that really need to be addressed," Harper said. She and a few others from Farmington went to the Capitol Friday to make one last plea for the bill before the committee meeting.  

“Our understanding from the co-chairs is that they’ve felt an awful lot of pressure to do something,” Harper said. 
On the other hand, ambulance companies have also lobbied hard against the bill, saying HB 6518 would destroy the current system – which divided the state into service areas in the 1970s. Under the current system, a state body assigns the ambulance provider to the service area indefinitely and municipalities are able to appeal the assignment only in the most dire of circumstances.  

“This would inappropriately destabilize emergency medical service coverage and response across the state by politicizing emergency medical services in each of our cities and towns,” offered David Lowell, president of the Association of Connecticut Ambulance Providers, in his testimony.  

For a town like Farmington, the issue is financial. If freed from the state assignment of service provider, the town could go out to bid or provide the service itself.  

“The proposed bill would give municipalities the discretion of going out to bid for a new ambulance service provider, or to provide this service themselves,” Demicco said in his testimony at the public hearing March 15. “Municipalities routinely go out to bid for proposals to determine the best way to provide a variety of services as a matter of best practices. Ambulance Transport Service should be no exception.”  

The bill will head to the Legislative Commissioner’s Office and find a spot on the legislative calendar.  

You can keep up with the bill's status here. 

Read a previous article detailing the issue here. 

Correction: Though the bill was passed by the Public Health Committee much of the language was stripped.