IAEP Supports CARE Act of 2025

The International Association of EMTs and Paramedics (IAEP) stands in support of the passage of H.R. 2538, the Comprehensive Alternative Response for Emergencies (CARE) Act.

This bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Representatives Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Mike Carey (R-OH), aims to launch a Treatment in Place (TIP) model pilot program under the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). This TIP program would help EMS professionals provide more patient-focused, case by case care that would streamline and improve the function of the entire EMS system for patients and providers alike. 

When a patient calls 9-1-1, their condition does not always require transport to an emergency room; it is often the case that they are better served on-scene, with telemedicine, or by being referred to a nonemergency physician. The TIP program recognizes all of this to be true, and its implementation allows protocols to be put in place that create better paths of care for these such patients.

Specifically, TIP would help to facilitate outcomes such as the referral of care to the patient’s own caregivers, who know the patient and their medical history, as opposed to emergency department staff who typically do not know much about the patient. This would also help to alleviate issues that plague EMS such as overcrowded hospitals, stretched-thin ambulance teams, and lengthy emergency room wait times by encouraging quick, effective, and situation-based care across each and every 9-1-1 call. 

The job of a first responder is to provide patients with the right care at the right time in a way that gives them the best possible outcome. More often than not, politics has gotten in the way of this goal by refusing to reimburse EMS unless the most expensive scenario plays out– an ambulance takes a patient to an emergency room. We want to guarantee that EMS is financially capable of providing services in any scenario that best serves the patient, keeping the entire system running smoothly and all involved healthy, safe, and cared for. We believe that the TIP program is the best way to do that. 

For these reasons, the IAEP urges the U.S. House of Representatives to now pass the CARE Act swiftly so that it can continue on its journey to become a law.

If you would like to join the IAEP in our support of the CARE Act, you can contact your representative with this form.