When Minutes Count for Emergency Medical Patients Act

The When Minutes Count for Emergency Medical Patients Act would create a new Medicare payment model focused on emergency medical services (EMS). It establishes the When Minutes Count for EMS Patients Model within the 1115A demonstration framework to provide supplemental payments to ground and air ambulance services for specified life-saving EMS medications and blood products that must be administered immediately during emergencies. The model would require eligible EMS entities to apply with data demonstrating their ability to supply medications and track outcomes, ensure representation across regions and EMS agency types, and support data necessary for reporting. Payments would be added on top of existing Medicare payments and aimed at covering costs such as maintaining medication and blood product supplies, storage, transport, and reporting infrastructure. The model would run for at least five years and require a Congress-delivering report within one year after the model ends evaluating effects on medication use, patient outcomes, and disparities in care, including rural communities. Separately, the bill directs the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) to conduct a two-year study and issue a report on emergency medical services payments under Medicare, covering EMS medical directors, EMS professionals, quality assurance, and policy options, including potential changes to how EMS is defined and paid under Medicare. It also requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue guidance to hospitals on wall-time issues in the emergency department (ED) and to report within a year on whether the guidance reduced wall time and on legislative steps to eliminate it.