‘‘SEC. 315. REGIONALIZED COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS FOR 
EMERGENCY CARE RESPONSE. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, acting through 
the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, 
shall award not fewer than 4 multiyear contracts or com-
petitive grants to eligible entities to support demonstration 
programs that design, implement, and evaluate innovative 
models of regionalized, comprehensive, and accountable 
emergency care systems. 
‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE ENTITY; REGION.— 
‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE
ENTITY.—In this section, the 
term ‘eligible entity’ means a State or a partnership 
of 1 or more States and 1 or more local govern-
ments. 
‘‘(2) REGION.—In this section, the term ‘re-
gion’ means an area within a State, an area that lies 
within multiple States, or a similar area (such as a 
multicounty area), as determined by the Secretary. 
‘‘(c) DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM.—The Secretary 
shall award a contract or grant under subsection (a) to 
an eligible entity that proposes a demonstration program 
to design, implement, and evaluate an emergency medical 
system that— 
‘‘(1) coordinates with public safety services, 
public health services, emergency medical services, 
medical facilities, and other entities within a region; 
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‘‘(2) coordinates an approach to emergency 
medical system access throughout the region, includ-
ing 9–1–1 Public Safety Answering Points and 
emergency medical dispatch; 
‘‘(3) includes a mechanism, such as a regional 
medical direction or transport communications sys-
tem, that operates throughout the region to ensure 
that the correct patient is taken to the medically ap-
propriate facility (whether an initial facility or a 
higher-level facility) in a timely fashion; 
‘‘(4) allows for the tracking of prehospital and 
hospital resources, including inpatient bed capacity, 
emergency department capacity, on-call specialist 
coverage, ambulance diversion status, and the co-
ordination of such tracking with regional commu-
nications and hospital destination decisions; and 
‘‘(5) 
includes 
a 
consistent 
region-wide 
prehospital, hospital, and interfacility data manage-
ment system that— 
‘‘(A) complies with the National EMS In-
formation System, the National Trauma Data 
Bank, and others; 
‘‘(B) reports data to appropriate Federal 
and State databanks and registries; and 
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‘‘(C) contains information sufficient to 
evaluate key elements of prehospital care, hos-
pital destination decisions, including initial hos-
pital and interfacility decisions, and relevant 
outcomes of hospital care. 
‘‘(d) APPLICATION.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—An eligible entity that 
seeks a contract or grant described in subsection (a) 
shall submit to the Secretary an application at such 
time and in such manner as the Secretary may re-
quire. 
‘‘(2) APPLICATION INFORMATION.—Each appli-
cation shall include— 
‘‘(A) an assurance from the eligible entity 
that the proposed system— 
‘‘(i) has been coordinated with the ap-
plicable State Office of Emergency Medical 
Services (or equivalent State office); 
‘‘(ii) is compatible with the applicable 
State emergency medical services system; 
‘‘(iii) includes consistent indirect and 
direct medical oversight of prehospital, 
hospital, 
and 
interfacility 
transport 
throughout the region; 
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‘‘(iv) coordinates prehospital treat-
ment and triage, hospital destination, and 
interfacility transport throughout the re-
gion; 
‘‘(v) includes a categorization or des-
ignation system for special medical facili-
ties throughout the region that is— 
‘‘(I) consistent with State laws 
and regulations; and 
‘‘(II) integrated with the proto-
cols for transport and destination 
throughout the region; and 
‘‘(vi) includes a regional medical di-
rection system, a patient tracking system, 
and a resource allocation system that— 
‘‘(I) support day-to-day emer-
gency care system operation; 
‘‘(II) can manage surge capacity 
during a major event or disaster; and 
‘‘(III) are integrated with other 
components of the national and State 
emergency preparedness system; 
‘‘(B) an agreement to make available non- 
Federal contributions in accordance with sub-
section (f); and 
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‘‘(C) such other information as the Sec-
retary may require. 
‘‘(e) MATCHING FUNDS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—With respect to the costs of 
the activities to be carried out each year with a con-
tract or grant under subsection (a), a condition for 
the receipt of the contract or grant is that the eligi-
ble entity involved agrees to make available (directly 
or through donations from public or private entities) 
non-Federal contributions toward such costs in an 
amount that is not less than 25 percent of such 
costs. 
‘‘(2) DETERMINATION
OF
AMOUNT
CONTRIB-
UTED.—Non-Federal contributions required in para-
graph (1) may be in cash or in kind, fairly evalu-
ated, including plant, equipment, or services. 
Amounts provided by the Federal Government, or 
services assisted or subsidized to any significant ex-
tent by the Federal Government, may not be in-
cluded in determining the amount of such non-Fed-
eral contributions. 
‘‘(f) PRIORITY.—The Secretary shall give priority for 
the award of the contracts or grants described subsection 
(a) to any eligible entity that serves a medically under-
served population (as defined in section 330(b)(3)). 
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