Wyoming Panel Backs Two-Year Boost in Medicaid Pay for Ambulance Runs

With input from County 10 and Gillette News Record.

A key Wyoming legislative committee has greenlit a bill draft to temporarily hike Medicaid reimbursements for emergency medical services from 67% to 100% of costs, a two-year lifeline slated to start next July. The move, estimated to cost the state about $1.3 million and trigger another $1.3 million in federal matching funds, is aimed at stabilizing ambulance providers that have been squeezed by rising costs and thin call volumes.

Wyoming Hospital Association president Eric Boley told lawmakers the bump won’t solve every problem, but it could keep rigs rolling while bigger fixes come together. He pointed to Fremont County, where local governments have spent heavily to keep service going, and called the proposal “a small amount of money” that could meaningfully reduce losses until federal support ramps up.

That larger pot could come from the new Rural Health Transformation Program, which Boley said may send up to $800 million to Wyoming over five years. But those dollars won’t hit overnight. Wyoming Department of Health deputy director Franz Fuchs said the state is preparing its application now and, in the meantime, is pushing a strategy that matches EMS’s fixed costs with realistic call volumes — encouraging consolidation, regional partnerships, and more efficient coverage maps to put services on steadier footing.

Rep. Pepper Ottman, a Riverton Republican on the Labor, Health and Social Services Committee, backed that approach. She said round-the-clock ambulance coverage in remote places like Jeffrey City isn’t practical and urged counties and municipalities to coordinate staffing and share resources. Ottman, who noted her county’s new Joint Committee on Funding Key Services is digging into long-term answers for Fremont’s ambulance system, said she’d “go against what I normally would do” and vote yes to give locals time to finish their work.

Rep. Joel Guggenmos, another Riverton Republican on the panel, also voted in favor. In the end, the bill draft passed 10–2 and now heads for consideration in next year’s budget session.

No one claimed the reimbursement bump is a cure-all. But with federal dollars on a slower timeline and providers absorbing losses now, lawmakers framed the measure as a bridge — one that keeps EMTs answering 911 calls while the state reshapes how rural emergency care is funded and delivered.