With looming Medicare and Medicaid cuts, health system financial challenges, and provider shortages, the healthcare industry is on the brink of major change. Concerns around access to care are rising. Payers and providers across the U.S. are looking towards Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) as the answer.
It’s true that partnerships with MIH programs can support payers, providers and health systems in both hitting the goal margin and achieving positive health outcomes. MIH is known for delivering cost effective care that addresses the expanding healthcare need.
Like a rising tide that may never recede, unmet healthcare needs will continue to grow. The depth of need increases secondary to the aging population, uncertainty in healthcare manufacturing costs, increasing prevalence of expensive chronic diseases, medication shortages, closing health systems, and more. Combine this with over $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over the next several years, and the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) will push payers and providers to take a long, hard look at the bottom line.
And that means changes are coming.
Making a Path for MIH
If MIH is an effective, affordable option for healthcare providers to leverage amidst cuts, MIH/CP implementation could dramatically increase across the United States. But, there are a few barriers standing in the way of progress.
Fragmentation, including inconsistent legislation across states, varied reporting methods, the lack of billing codes specific to MIH, combined with previous lack of awareness of the role of MIH, limits the industry’s growth. And alas, the burden we all know and love to hate, red tape.
A Look Back
To get there takes action and advocacy. We can look back at the history of EMS and MIH to see examples of progress. At our 2025 MIH Summit in Tampa FL, NAMIHP was honored to have Councilman (ret.) Mitchell Brown and Dr. William Raynovich share their experience serving as pioneers within the Freedom House Ambulance Service.
The Freedom House Ambulance Service was a pioneering force in emergency medicine in Pittsburgh in the late 1960s. The ambulance service, led by Dr. Peter Safar and Dr. Nancy Caroline, focused on delivering the care its community needed. Freedom House offered job training and assistance to Black Pittsburghers, and set in motion 50 years of healthcare growth, towards what we now see: EMS as an invaluable, lifesaving component of healthcare, delivered by highly trained paramedics.
Despite what legislation existed in the 1960’s, Brown and Raynovich saw the needs of their community and found ways to meet them. Paramedics were trained to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), bringing emergency medicine to the field. No more waiting while in transit to a hospital or health center. Brown instituted training programs to ensure the paramedics could identify and take action to address the community’s needs.
As the program saved lives and demonstrated impact on the community being served, it began to create change across the industry. The training Freedom House began became the model for national EMS training.
“You have to go out and do it, and let the law catch up with you,” Raynovich said. “They’ll never make a law to give you permission if there isn’t something great happening here.”
Advocating for Change
As in the time of Freedom House, we’re also at a time of great change. Our medical system needs innovation to better deliver care and to do so sustainably.
Those on the frontlines of delivering care recognize that social determinants of health (SDOH) affect health outcomes, and that often you need to address both medical and social needs simultaneously. MIH providers can serve as an extension of the existing healthcare system, to fill these gaps, coordinate care across inpatient, outpatient, skilled nursing, community-based organizations, triage acutely when needed, and more.
MIH teams today are actively advocating for legislative change locally and nationally. From updating scope of practice laws to allow community paramedics to function at the top of their license, to establishing billing capabilities for MIH teams, there’s work to be done to ensure every community has access to MIH services.
Throughout the country, we see shifts in recognition, with growth in partnerships between MIH teams and large, regional health systems and health plans. Now is the time to advocate for MIH, which can be a key lever to reduce costs and improve outcomes.
Actions for MIH Growth – When Healthcare Needs it Most
Step Up Data and Reporting | At the industry level, adopting standardized language and data reporting helps tell coordinated stories. NAMIHP is advocating at the national level and coordinating with agencies to develop a standard language that will allow for more consistent data collection. Stay engaged with these updates.
Uphold Quality | Following standards for education and MIH program accreditation uphold healthcare quality and safety priorities across MIH. Examples include education requirements for community paramedicine board certification (CP-C) and the Commission on Accreditation for Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) standards for MIH accreditation Even if a team is not yet MIH accredited, using the guidelines to create structure can help meet healthcare priorities. Focusing on education and quality are core to healthcare, and it demonstrates to payers, providers and health systems that MIH is a cost-effective option meeting compliance and quality requirements.
Share MIH Impact | If you’re part of an MIH program providing incredible care every day, document your work. Collect stories. Build a slate of patient and family advocates that can also share your stories. Data collection is essential for creating large-scale change, but stories from neighbors build your grassroots support. NAMIHP is working on initiatives to tell the national story of MIH Impact, and your contribution makes a difference.
Make Your Voice Heard | For legislative change, making your voice heard is a start. Take some time to figure out who your local decision makers and supporters are. A group of voices is always louder, especially if those voices have a large economic impact in your community. Become a reliable partner for your local health departments, police departments, fire and rescue departments. Get MIH Week recognized by your organization, by your community, by your state. Develop good working relationships with your local EMS officials and legislative representatives.
Visit the Advocacy page at namihp.org. Here you can see current legislation impacting MIH at the state and national level and find contact information for your local legislators. Be the voice supporting MIH/CP service expansion, and for mobile healthcare models. Advocate for the ability to bill for MIH/CP as a covered service.
Yes, healthcare change is coming. We’re staring at a sea of unmet healthcare and community needs and the industry will have to adjust the sails, just as those before us did. Mobile Integrated Health isn’t a future solution, it’s a here-and-now necessity. MIH delivers the right care at the right cost when it is needed most. But change doesn’t just happen, it’s driven by people who dare to act.
If we want a healthcare system that’s accessible and built for the challenges ahead, then MIH must not only be supported, but protected, scaled, and sustained. The time is now. The moment is here. And the next chapter of healthcare starts with us.
NAMIHP has support resources for those just getting started as well as for those ready to make an even bigger impact. Reach out to us today to find out how you can enhance and engage with the MIH industry at office@namihp.org