Public Safety

As a life member of Level Volunteer Fire Company, I’m a strong supporter of our first responders and law enforcement.

Over the past few years we’ve seen a trend of making our law enforcement professionals made to be a scapegoat for the problems in society.  We must end this false narrative and support our law enforcement by assisting with recruitment efforts gain back officers lost from these attacks against law enforcement to ensure we have safe communities.

This past session I passed legislation to increase the Medicaid reimbursement rate for first responders by 50%.  This was the first increase to the rate since 1999.  This increase will allow our volunteer companies to recoup more costs and provide better service.

This bill also allows for the reimbursement of service provided to Medicaid patients who are treated but refuse transportation service.  We’ve unfortunately seen more of this as we still continue to battle the opioid epidemic.

With the addition of reimbursement for mobile integrated health, I believe that we will start to see emergency room wait times decrease across the state.