The West Virginia Senate on Friday adopted legislation that will, for the first time, provide a permanent funding source for emergency medical services in the state.
House Bill 5168 will divert $12 million from the State Lottery Fund annually to create three new funding streams for EMS services to be used on mental health treatment, training and equipment.
The Senate unanimously approved the amended version of HB 5168. The House must now concur on the changes made by midnight Saturday in order to send the legislation to the governor’s desk for signature.
The legislation previously passed the House unanimously in February. The bill was amended by the Senate Finance Committee earlier this month, where changes were made regarding how localities would match state allocated dollars and the use of that money.
Under the current version of the bill, the new funding cannot be used for salaries. EMS salaries are paid through a separate source — the EMS Salary Enhancement Fund — which has gone unfunded for at least the last two years.
Chris Hall, the executive director of the West Virginia EMS Coalition, said in a statement that the state’s “entire EMS community looks forward” to seeing the House concur and adopt the pending legislation passed by the Senate.
“The WV EMS Coalition is grateful that the Senate has joined the House of Delegates in passing House Bill 5168, which creates the first permanent state funding source for EMS,” Hall said. “With this action, West Virginia joins our neighboring states in financially supporting EMS at the state level.”
According to the proposed code, the $12 million from lottery funds will be split as follows:
- $6 million will go to the Medical Services Crisis Response and Mental Health Treatment Fund. The first $1 million allocated in that fund must be used for mental health and trauma response programming for EMS workers, including peer support groups, counseling and more. The remaining $5 million can be used for any training, equipment, maintenance or crisis response needs
- $3 million to the County Emergency Medical Services Fund. The money will be given to county commissions for the “exclusive benefit” of providing EMS services. Only counties that have excess levies or a county-wide fee for those services will receive the funds, which will be distributed based on population
- $3 million to the All-County Emergency Medical Services Fund. That money will go to all counties, based on population, for EMS services
The director of the West Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Service will be responsible for administering all funds, which will be interest-accumulating accounts. Any dollars left over at the end of a fiscal year will remain in the fund instead of being diverted back to the state’s General Revenue Fund.
Counties that receive any of the lottery funds will be required to match all dollars given by 30%.
The bill also amends portions of the state’s certified microgrid code to ensure that any developers who build a high impact data center or microgrid must pay county service fees for EMS and first responder services. However, they cannot be required to pay both county and municipal fire protection fees at the same time, per the code. The amendment also added ambulance services into required fees.
Current law only requires developers or tenants in such districts to pay municipal fees.
No lawmakers spoke on HB 5168 on the Senate floor on Friday.
EMS advocates and community leaders have been pushing for a permanent funding source for the critical services for the last several years. Without it, the funding has been made up of a combination of levies, grants and volunteers who keep ambulances running. The hodgepodge of funding has fallen short in many counties, and the West Virginia EMS Coalition previously predicted that closures could continue if changes weren’t made.
At least 18 organizations licensed by the West Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services to provide 911 response have ceased operations in the state since 2022. To make up for the losses, several EMS organizations work across county lines to fill gaps and meet the needs of residents.
In 2023 — when Sen. Jim Justice was governor — a bill that would have provided permanent funding to EMS agencies didn’t make it to the governor’s desk due to lawmakers squabbling over how they’d pay for it in the last hours of the legislative session. Later that year, more than a dozen EMS agencies urged Justice to include permanent funding for EMS in his call for a special session meant to deal with the state budget. Justice denied the request.
EMS workers unsuccessfully tried to secure the funding again in 2024. Again, their asks were denied by lawmakers.
In the meantime, ambulance shortages have been linked to deaths in West Virginia, including two just weeks apart in February and March of 2024. A teenager died after waiting for CPR and other emergency care because his local ambulance service didn’t have a crew to respond, and a mother died in Mingo County while her husband drove her to a hospital because an ambulance wasn’t available.
This article originally appeared on West Virginia Watch.
West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.
