The New Hampshire Ambulance Association

The New Hampshire Ambulance Association • PO Box 2344 • Concord, NH 03302-2344

info@the-nhaa.org

Welcome to the New Hampshire Ambulance Association.  The voice for Ambulance service providers in New Hampshire.  Our group is a diverse mix of Municipal, Private, Fire Based, Hospital Based, for profit, not for profit, air and ground. 

While we have many differences, we have many things in common, such ACA/ObamaCare which will impact us all.  By helping each other and working together we can bring about positive change for ourselves, our services, our communities and the patients we serve.

The NHAA has been working hard for our members.  We received national attention for succeeding in direct pay legislation which passed into law.  Direct pay legislation compels insurance companies to send the payment for ambulance services directly to the provider.  Prior to this crucial change, patients would receive the checks for ambulance services, and in many instances they would cash the check and then not pay the ambulance bill. Losses from this practice served only to increase the cost of ambulance services from creating unpaid bills and to enrich the unscrupulous patients who spent the money that was intended to pay their ambulance bill.

Our little group, without any real funding did what bigger associations across the nation have failed to do.  We passed direct pay legislation.  As of January first 2012, those checks which had gone to patients are now required to come directly to the service.  This streamlines the system and controls cost through efficiency.

By working with lawmakers and the New Hampshire Insurance Commissioner, The New Hampshire Ambulance Association was instrumental in stopping the intended distribution of a letter from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield to their members, which instructed them not to pay ambulance bills. 

It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see what the effect of Anthem telling their patients not to pay their bills would have on ambulance services throughout the state.  Had the NHAA not been watching and at the forefront of the effort to stop this disaster before it could happen, things would've turned out much differently.

Right Now, we are working with the Medical Care Advisory Committee of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Medicaid, to make sure that the rules implemented for the managed-care process are workable but also congruent with the national payment patterns. By making this program more aligned with the Medicare model we can achieve a level of standardization which will make things better for everyone.

As you may know, ACA has provisions for the massive expansion of Medicaid. The New Hampshire Ambulance Association with your help is seeking to make sure that the reimbursement rates for Medicare become the standard for the expanded Medicaid as well. Because the federal government will be picking up the tab for expanded Medicaid, this will be a budget neutral request.

The NHAA has also met with the representatives from Centene.  Centene is one of the three contracted managed care companies that will be working to manage Medicaid in New Hampshire. Over the next few weeks, we will be reaching out to the other two contractors in hopes of getting better contracts for member services.  As a group of providers our numbers give him the ability to negotiate with a certain amount of leverage, whereas individual services cant.  Our duty is to the public good, because ambulances are the front door to healthcare for the sickest among us.

Not all of our efforts have been around ACA, managed Medicaid , legislation insurance companies, and billing matters.  We have also influenced the care our patients will receive.  The association was represented at every meeting of the SAF-C rules committee.  Our 30 page written testimony to the group made some sort of impact as well.

We have shaped EMS training with our appointment of Shawn Riley.  His efforts have resulted in a more sensible re-certification process for EMT's.  This not only saves your service time and money but ends up positively impacting the patients we serve.

The truth is that we had a lot of help from a group of people who are not members of the association.  Starting with our New Hampshire Lawmakers.  No matter what party or political bent, these people took a genuine concern to our situation.  They may not agree, we may not agree, but everyone tried to do the right thing.  We are very lucky to live in New Hampshire.

Add your voice to ours.  Please join the New Hampshire Ambulance Association.