Great News!

This just passed the Rural Health Policy Congress of the National Rural Health Association and is valid for SEVEN years. NRHA can now endorse HR 3822.

"The National Rural Health Association joins with the Association of Air Medical Services, the International Association of Flight Paramedics, the National Association of EMTs, the American Ambulance Association and a host of state and regional EMS organizations to support extension the Public Safety Officer Benefit to include all of the police, fire and EMS personnel who lose their lives providing emergency medical duties as a public service."

URGENT! LODD Bill Hearing 1/16/08

Last year NH created a law that will provide a cash payment of $100,000 to the families of any NH law enforcement officer or firefighter killed in the line of duty. An effort was made at that time to include EMS into that law, but did not pass. A bill to do that was introduced in the NH Senate last week.

Senator Peter Burling submitted Senate Bill 316, co-sponsored by Senator Lou D’Allesandro and Representative David Welch. It is very, very important for EMS providers to actively advocate for this bill.

A coalition of three organizations has gotten together to try to coordinate the efforts of the NH EMS community to support this legislation. But what is most important is to have a lot of EMS providers supporting the bill by attending the hearings in uniform and writing to their legislators. The coalition has put together materials to assist individual providers in this process. Please contact one or more of the individuals listed below to ask what you can do to help. Don’t worry if you’re not a member of that organization, this effort is for all NH EMT’s and Paramedics.

Senate Bill 316 was introduced into the Senate last week and is already scheduled to be heard in Committee. The hearing is very soon – NEXT WEEK – so please make plans now to attend. The hearing is at the NH State House, Room 103, on Wednesday January 16, 2008 at 1:30 pm.

At the Senate hearing of the bill last year the room was standing room only, filled with firefighters and law enforcement officers. That’s what needs to happen this year with EMS providers. Join your colleagues to advocate for this very important piece of legislation, and support parity between police, fire and EMS .

For further information please contact one of the following members of the coalition:

NH Association of EMT’s – Jennifer Frenette – usd2bfn@yahoo.com

NH Ambulance Association – Patrick Twoomey – Patrick.accessems@comcast.net

NH Paramedic Association – David Hogan – dhoganjr@yahoo.com

PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE WITH AS MANY NH EMS PROVIDERS AS YOU CAN…HELP SPREAD THE WORD!!!!