An MBA graduate in health service management from Texas Tech University – Rawls College of Business, Dr. John Wells, MD, is medical director of Fire/EMS for the City of Brownsville, Texas. In that role, Dr. John Wells integrates experiences from health services management and emergency medicine to develop medical policies in line with federal and state guidelines. Under his leadership, the department has expanded programs, and recently earned acceptance into the ET3 program.
An abbreviation of Emergency, Triage, Treat, and Transport, ET3 is a voluntary payment model developed by the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to equip ambulance care teams with flexibility in addressing the emergency health needs for beneficiaries of Medicare Free-for-Service (FFS).
Currently, Medicare regulations allow payment for emergency ambulance services only when individuals are transported to dialysis centers, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and critical access hospitals. The ET3 model was developed to avoid unnecessary transport of patients to those facilities in situations where lower-acuity destinations are more appropriate.
With a five-year duration, the ET3 model will enhance the quality of care and minimize expenditures through the following means:
1. Provision of suitable, person-centered care for FFS beneficiaries.
2. Increase efficiency in the current EMS system, so acute cases such as strokes and heart attacks can be responded to in a more timely fashion.
3. Optimize the appropriate utilization of emergency care services.
Dr. John Wells 