§ 33:4791.1 — Regulation by local governing authorities of ambulance services, emergency

Louisiana § 33:4791.1

• Jurisdiction: Louisiana
• Title 33: Municipalities and Parishes

Text

§4791.1. Regulation by local governing authorities of ambulance services, emergency
medical services, and aspects attendant to ambulance operation
A. The legislature hereby finds and declares the following:
(1) The provision of consistently high quality emergency medical care, and any and
all aspects attendant to ambulance operation to be provided within a medically acceptable
response time is essential to the health, safety, and welfare of the state and its people.
(2) Privately operated ambulance services providing patient transportation service
or emergency medical services fulfill a vital health and safety need within the state. The
operation of such ambulance services operated within the jurisdiction of municipalities and
other local governing authorities enables the state to provide the benefits of privately
operated, demand-responsive ambulance services to its people.
(3) The economic viability and stability of such privately operated ambulance
services are consequently a matter of statewide importance.
(4) The policy of this state is to promote medically acceptable and reliable, privately
operated ambulance services, the furnishing of emergency medical services, and any and all
aspects attendant to ambulance operations in order to provide the benefits of that service to
its citizens. In furtherance of this policy, the legislature recognizes and affirms that the
regulation of such privately operated ambulance service is an essential governmental
function.
(5) The policy of this state is to provide that municipalities and other local governing
authorities may regulate privately operated ambulance services, the furnishing of emergency
medical services, and any and all aspects attendant to ambulance operation. It is further the
policy of the state not to subject any local governing authority or its officers or members to
liability under federal antitrust laws.
(6) The policy of this state is to ensure that transportation of a citizen by ground
ambulance be made to the most appropriate medical facility, which may include an
alternative destination to a facility other than a hospital emergency department based on a
protocol consistent with the requirements of Paragraph (B)(7) of this Section that has been
approved by the provider or supplier's medical director.
B. Every municipality or other local governing authority may protect the public
health, safety, and welfare by licensing, controlling, and regulating by ordinance or resolution
privately operated ambulance services, the furnishing of emergency medical services, and
any and all aspects attendant to ambulance operations within the jurisdiction of the
municipality or other local governing authority. Every municipality or other local governing
authority is empowered to regulate the following:
(1) Entry into the business of providing ambulance service, including emergency
medical services, within the jurisdiction of that municipality or local governing authority.
(2) Rates charged for the provision of ambulance services, in accordance with federal
law relative to medical reimbursement, including emergency medical services. If the rates
are set by a municipality or other local governing authority and the ambulance service has
not entered into a contract for alternative reimbursement, those rates shall be the minimum
allowable charge under any health insurance policy issued by any insurer regulated by the
Department of Insurance.
(3) Establishment of safety and insurance requirements.
(4) Any other requirement adopted to ensure safe, reliable, and responsive ambulance
service, even if such requirement is anticompetitive in effect.
(5) Limited or exclusive access by such ambulance service for the provision of
emergency medical services to the 911 or other emergency communications dispatch of the
municipality or other local governing authority.
(6) The establishment of safety and insurance requirements even if such requirements
reduce the number of such private ambulance services that otherwise would operate within
the jurisdiction of the municipality or other local governing authority.
(7)(a) The establishment of a protocol by all providers or suppliers operating ground
ambulance services within the municipality to ensure the safe transport of a citizen to an
alternative destination when the emergency medical services personnel has determined that
the individual's condition does not meet the definition of emergency medical condition
pursuant to R.S. 22:1821(D)(2)(g)(i).
(b) The protocol required by this Paragraph shall ensure all of the following:
(i) That no person is transported to an alternative destination unless he and the
alternative destination both consent to the transport.
(ii) That no ambulance service transports a person to an alternative destination in
which the ambulance service has a financial interest.
C.(1)(a) Each municipality or other local governing authority that has established
rates for ground ambulance services provided in its geographic service area as authorized by
this Section or ambulance service provider designated or contracted to provide ambulance
services on behalf of a local governing authority that has established rates for ground
ambulance services provided in its geographic service area shall submit rates to the
Department of Insurance, in the form and manner prescribed by the department. The rates
submitted shall be certified as accurate by the submitting local governing authority or
ambulance service provider.
(b) The local governing authority or ambulance service provider shall notify the
Department of Insurance of any changes to the established rates.
(2) The Department of Insurance shall establish and maintain a publicly accessible
database for the rates on its website. An insurer may rely in good faith on the rates displayed
on the website.
D. Cognizance is hereby taken of provisions in home rule charters of various
parishes and municipalities which permit the regulation of ambulance services, the furnishing
of emergency medical services, and any and all aspects attendant to ambulance operation
within the jurisdiction of such parishes and municipalities. In connection with same, the
provisions of this Section are hereby deemed and shall be interpreted and construed to be
retroactive.
E. Any municipality or other local governing authority is authorized to carry out the
provisions of this Section as acts of government on behalf of the state as sovereign and, to
the extent the governing authority deems necessary or appropriate, is further authorized to
displace competition and provide a monopoly public service. All immunity of the state of
Louisiana from liability under antitrust law is hereby extended to any municipality or other
governing authority acting within the scope of authority contained in this Section and, when
so acting, a municipality or other local governing authority shall be presumed to be acting
in furtherance of state policy.
F. Nothing in this Section shall be construed to authorize the regulation of
ambulance services, emergency medical services, or ambulance operations which are located
on the site of any manufacturing facility solely for use thereon.

Legislative History

Acts 1986, No. 560, §1, eff. July 2, 1986; Acts 2018, No. 269, §1; Acts 2018, No. 565, §1; Acts 2025, No. 489, §1.