Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 44, November 2, 2024
(a)
License required. A person, or other entity, as an owner,
agent or otherwise, may not operate, conduct, maintain, advertise or otherwise
engage in or profess to be engaged in operating an EMS agency in this
Commonwealth unless that person holds a license as an EMS agency and a current
registration of that license issued by the Department or is exempt from these
requirements. By way of example, an entity is operating an EMS agency if it
operates any of the following:
(1) An
ambulance service.
(i) BLS ambulance
service.
(ii) Intermediate ALS
ambulance service.
(iii) ALS
ambulance service, including a critical care transport ambulance
service.
(iv) Air ambulance
service.
(v) BLS water ambulance
service.
(vi) Intermediate ALS
water ambulance service.
(vii) ALS
water ambulance service.
(2) A squad service.
(i) BLS squad service.
(ii) Intermediate ALS squad
service.
(iii) ALS squad
service.
(3) A
QRS.
(4) A special operations EMS
service.
(i) Tactical EMS service.
(ii) Wilderness EMS service.
(iii) Mass-gathering EMS service.
(iv) Urban search and rescue
service.
(5) An EMS
agency dispatch center operating as part of an EMS agency.
(b)
License requirements.
The Department will license an applicant as an EMS agency if the Department is
satisfied that the applicant has met the following requirements:
(1) The applicant and persons having a
substantial ownership interest in the applicant are responsible persons and the
EMS agency shall be staffed by and conduct its activities through responsible
persons. For purposes of this paragraph:
(i) A
responsible person is a person who has not engaged in an act contrary to
justice, honesty or good morals which indicates that the person is likely to
betray the public trust in carrying out the activities of the EMS agency, or is
a person who has engaged in this type of conduct but has been rehabilitated and
is not likely to again betray the public trust.
(ii) A person has a substantial ownership in
the applicant if the person has equity in the capital, stock or the profits of
the applicant equal to 5% or more of the property or assets of the
applicant.
(iii) A person staffs an
EMS agency if the person engages in activity integral to the operation of the
EMS agency, including participating in the making or execution of management
decisions, providing EMS, billing, call-taking and dispatching.
(2) The applicant meets the supply
and equipment requirements for each EMS vehicle and type of EMS service it
makes application to offer, and demonstrates that it shall be maintained and
operated to safely and efficiently operate those vehicles and render those
services.
(3) The applicant shall
meet staffing standards for the vehicles it seeks to operate and the services
it seeks to provide. Subject to the exceptions in §
1027.6 (relating to Statewide EMS
response plan), this includes providing EMS services 24-hours-a-day,
7-days-a-week or participating in a county-level or broader-level EMS response
plan approved by the Department.
(4) The applicant shall provide safe services
that are adequate for the emergency medical care, treatment and comfort and,
when applicable, the transportation of patients.
(5) The applicant has an EMS agency medical
director who satisfies requirements established by the Department based upon
the types of services it seeks to provide and the EMS vehicles it seeks to
operate.
(6) The applicant
satisfies the regulatory requirements relating to making its application for a
license and has adopted policies and procedures adequate to ensure compliance
with the requirements in the act, this part and notices the Department
publishes in the Pennsylvania Bulletin that are applicable to
its operations.
(c)
License certificate. The Department will issue a license
certificate to an applicant that it licenses as an EMS agency. The license
certificate will specify the name of the EMS agency, its license number, the
address of its primary operational headquarters and the date the license was
issued. The Department will also issue with the license certificate a document
that specifies the type or types of EMS agency services the EMS agency is
licensed to provide, the types of EMS vehicles the agency will operate, the
locations out of which it is authorized to provide that service or services if
more than one location is involved, the fictitious name, if any, under which it
conducts its operations at each location involved, and the name of the regional
EMS council through which the license application was processed. The Department
will replace that document if there is a need to change the information on it
due to a license amendment.
(d)
License registration. An EMS agency requires both an EMS
agency license and current registration of that license to conduct its
operations. When the Department registers an EMS agency's license it will issue
a registration certificate to the EMS agency that specifies the name of the EMS
agency, its license number, the address of its primary operational headquarters
and the dates the registration is effective and will expire.
(e)
Transition for ambulance services
and QRSs.
(1) An entity that is
licensed as an ambulance service or recognized as a QRS by the Department, or a
hospital that operates an ambulance service or QRS under its hospital license,
immediately prior to April 10, 2014, will be licensed by the Department as an
EMS agency, with a current registration of that license on April 10, 2014, if
the records of the Department reflect that the ambulance service, QRS or
hospital has an EMS agency medical director. The license and registration will
authorize the EMS agency to operate the EMS vehicles and provide the services
it was authorized to operate and provide when licensed as an ambulance service,
recognized as a QRS, or operated under a hospital license.
(2) An entity that is licensed as an
ambulance service or recognized as a QRS by the Department, or operates an
ambulance service under a hospital license, immediately prior to April 10,
2014, that does not have an EMS agency medical director may continue to operate
as an ambulance service or QRS under the regulations promulgated under the
Emergency Medical Services Act (35 P. S. §§ 6921-6938) (repealed by the act of August 18,
2009 (P. L. 308, No. 37)), until April 10, 2014, without securing an EMS agency
license.
This section cited in 28 Pa. Code §
1027.2 (relating to license and
registration applications).
