In the Wednesday, Nov. 15, edition of the Butler Eagle, we learned about a proposal from Forward Township to help address a problem we’ve written about multiple times before: the funding crisis emergency medical service providers statewide are facing.

Rising costs and stagnant or even shrinking reimbursements for medical calls have made it increasingly difficult for EMS providers to recruit and retain qualified emergency medical technicians and paramedics.

That’s led to smaller communities facing long response times for emergency calls, and, in some cases around the state, to EMS providers closing their doors. This is an issue the board of supervisors in Forward Township has been discussing for several months. On Tuesday, the board gave preliminary approval to a plan that would divert all of the money from the township’s local services tax to the three EMS providers that cover the area.

That would give a short-term funding boost for the Quality EMS, Harmony EMS and Butler Ambulance Service. The idea came from supervisor Mark Wilson.

The money from the local services tax is normally used to give annual donations to local fire departments and EMS providers, but this year, the idea is to use the money to supplement the salaries of EMTs and paramedics.

“I want it specifically for the line workers,” Wilson said during Tuesday’s meeting. “I want the people in the ambulances to get it.”

The proposal isn’t final — the supervisors need to approve it as part of the 2024 budget, which is scheduled for a vote during the Dec. 5 meeting — but the supervisors were supportive.

The crisis EMS providers face is compounded by the fact municipalities are responsible for making sure their residents have emergency services, even though the bulk of the revenue for the providers comes from health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid. The proposal from Forward Township is a short-term fix, as the supervisors themselves have said, but it is a creative solution and one we hope can be implemented elsewhere if needed.

New proposals like this are how the state will find a long-term fix to the EMS crisis.

— JK