BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 1245 (Williams)
Hearing Date: 8/15/2011 Amended: 7/11/2011
Consultant: Katie Johnson Policy Vote: Health 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 1245 would permit the Emergency Medical
Services Authority (EMSA) to adopt regulations for the state
approval of standards for an emergency medical responder (EMR)
training course that meets or exceeds federal guidelines, but
would specify that this bill would not authorize an EMR
independent scope of practice, license, certification, or
category of emergency medical services personnel. The bill would
permit public safety agencies to continue to administer existing
training programs and provider services described in those
training programs as those programs existed January 1, 2011.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
EMSA regulations minor and absorbable General
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STAFF COMMENTS:
This bill would permit EMSA to promulgate regulations for state
approval of standards for an EMR training course that meets or
exceeds the United States Department of Transportation's
Emergency Medical Responder: Instructional Guidelines. This bill
would specifically state that these provisions do not authorize
an EMR independent scope of practice, license, or certification
nor does it authorize a new category of emergency medical
services personnel.
Costs to EMSA to develop and adopt regulations, if they were to
choose to do so, would be minor and absorbable.
This bill would specify that these provisions would continue to
allow the Department of the California Highway Patrol, Cal-Fire,
or any other public safety agency that provides training to its
law enforcement or firefighting personnel from administering
AB 1245 (Williams)
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training programs under the authority of statute and regulations
existing on January 1, 2011, nor would it prohibit said
personnel from providing services that were the subject of the
training programs as those training programs existed on January
1, 2011.
Currently, EMSA, in consultation with a stakeholder group, is in
the process of drafting regulations to establish an EMR license
and related training guidelines. If this bill were to be signed,
it would either, at the option of EMSA, halt or alter the
regulations currently being developed.
As referenced in this bill, many state and local public safety
entities currently provide an EMR level of training for their
law enforcement and firefighting personnel, which is generally
between basic first aid and an emergency medical technician
(EMT). Existing state regulations permit state and local public
safety agencies to provide additional optional training beyond
the statutorily required first aid and cardiopulmonary
resuscitation instruction. There are separate regulations for
both EMT and Advanced EMT instruction.
To the extent that this bill would result in first responders to
emergencies having less training than currently, there could be
increased emergency and hospital costs if an individual's health
condition became more acute due to this bill's prohibition of
the EMR training category. However, it is likely that the
majority of first responders would fall under the exemption
contained in this bill and there would likely be little impact
on the EMS system.