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BILL # HB 2402 |
TITLE: ambulance services; certificates of necessity |
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SPONSOR: Willoughby |
STATUS: As Introduced |
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PREPARED BY: Maggie Rocker |
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The bill would require ambulance services to report specified information quarterly to the Department of Health Services (DHS) and authorize DHS to impose a civil penalty on ambulance services for failure to comply with the established reporting requirements. The bill additionally requires DHS to establish an online certificate of necessity application portal for applicants and publish a dashboard of ambulance service response times on the agency's website.
Estimated Impact
We expect the bill to generate additional IT and staffing costs for DHS to develop a CON application portal and public ambulance response time dashboard, but we cannot provide a precise estimate without agency input. The bill might also increase General Fund revenues associated with new civil penalties.
DHS has not responded to our request for their estimate.
Our estimated impact is based on the following assumptions:
1) Ground ambulance services in Arizona are regulated via a certificate of necessity (CON) system. The CON issued for each service includes detail relating to the geographic service area, hours of operation, response times, level of service, etc. At present, 103 ambulance services with CONs operate in Arizona. The bill would require each ambulance service to report to DHS quarterly regarding ambulance dispatch and public availability, including such metrics as dispatch time, hospital arrival time, and instances in which an ambulance service does not have an available ambulance within the service area. To the extent the expanded reporting requirements increase DHS's administrative workload, additional staff may be required to help process.
2) The bill would require DHS to both create an online CON application portal and a public dashboard detailing ambulance service response times, which would likely result in the need for additional IT resources.
3) The bill allows DHS to assess new civil penalties for ambulance services, including a fine of $500 for instances in which a service fails to comply with the quarterly reporting requirements, and a fine of $1,500 for instances in which a service is not complying with its CON requirements. Civil penalty revenues are deposited into the General Fund. To the extent ambulance services are out of compliance with statute, the bill's provisions would increase General Fund revenues. This amount cannot be determined in advance.
2/10/26