Assembly Bill 970 aims to enhance community emergency medical services (EMS) and falls prevention initiatives in Wisconsin. The bill mandates the Department of Health Services (DHS) to award grants totaling $600,000 to six EMS programs across rural, suburban, and urban areas, with a focus on hiring full-time community paramedics or EMS practitioners. If additional funding is available, a seventh grant may be awarded. The bill also requires grant recipients to report on the effectiveness of the funding within a year. Additionally, it allocates $200,000 for each of the fiscal years 2025-26 and 2026-27 to the Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging for statewide falls prevention awareness and initiatives.

To implement these changes, the bill creates a new section in the statutes for community emergency medical services grants while repealing the previous section that governed these grants. The new provisions specify the criteria for grant eligibility, including the prohibition of grants to programs that already employ community paramedics. The bill also outlines the fiscal adjustments necessary to support the new appropriations for both community EMS grants and falls prevention initiatives. The effective date of the act is set for the day after publication, with the repeal of the previous grant section taking effect on July 1, 2027.