Idaho’s emergency medical services system faces a critical shortage, and state health officials believe a federal grant could help address a growing gap in how the state manages chronic illness and non-urgent medical needs in underserved rural communities.
The state is seeking funding through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to expand community paramedic programs—a model that deploys specially trained emergency medical technicians to help patients manage chronic conditions, prevent hospitalizations, and reduce unnecessary emergency room visits. Wayne Denny, who leads Idaho’s Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, said the grant money would be transformative for rural counties currently without such services.
“This very possibly will kind of serve as that seed money that we were going to need to start getting the system built out,” Denny told the Idaho Capital Sun, according to reporting that first covered the state’s grant application.
A Model That Works
Community paramedic programs operate differently from traditional ambulance services. Rather than responding to emergency calls, these providers drive unmarked vehicles to patients’ homes, workplaces, and community settings to address ongoing health management. The approach targets the substantial portion of emergency department visits that are not truly urgent—a 2013 CDC study cited by Idaho officials found that more than one-third of such visits fall into that category.
Ada County has operated a community health paramedic program for more than a decade, making it one of the longest-running models in the state. Dave Walls, a community paramedic in Ada County, exemplifies the role. Working alone in a GMC Yukon branded for Ada County Paramedics—not an ambulance—Walls helps patients navigate social services, obtain insurance coverage like Medicaid, and manage chronic diseases to keep them out of hospitals.
One of his early clients was Mark Babson, whom Walls knew from conversations at a Starbucks Babson managed in 2012, years before Walls took on the community paramedic role. When Walls later connected with Babson through the program, he helped him secure Medicaid coverage for in-home caregiving services—a step that made a measurable difference in Babson’s health outcomes.
“That feels almost as good as a code save,” Walls said of facilitating that kind of breakthrough for a patient, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.
A Growing Movement
Idaho’s second major community EMS program operates in the Magic Valley, covering Twin Falls, Jerome, and Gooding counties since its founding in 2019. Despite the demonstrated success of both programs, only a handful of EMS agencies across Idaho have embraced the community health model.
Denny’s goal is to place at least one community health EMS provider in every Idaho county that currently lacks one. The federal grant money would provide the foundational funding to begin building out that infrastructure in rural areas where traditional ambulance services struggle with staffing and financial sustainability.
Community paramedics receive specialized training to handle non-emergent health issues and chronic condition management—work that falls outside the scope of traditional 911 response crews. The model reduces the burden on hospital emergency departments and allows ambulance services to focus on true emergencies, potentially improving response times statewide.
What Comes Next
The success of Idaho’s federal grant application remains pending. If awarded, the funding could accelerate the state’s ability to deploy community paramedic programs in underserved regions, particularly in rural counties where EMS agencies face budget constraints and recruitment challenges. State officials expect the grant to serve as “seed money” to establish initial programs, with the expectation that successful models would demonstrate value and justify ongoing state or local support.
For now, Ada County and Magic Valley remain the state’s primary laboratories for proving that community paramedics can improve health outcomes and reduce emergency department crowding—and Denny is betting federal investment will help that model spread.