Section 3005. Ambulance service certificates

1. No ambulance service
  operating for profit, hospital ambulance service or municipal  ambulance
  service  of  a  city  of over one million population shall operate on or
  after September first, nineteen hundred seventy-five unless it possesses
  a valid ambulance service certificate issued pursuant to  this  article.
  Effective  January  first,  nineteen  hundred ninety-seven, no ambulance
  service shall be operated unless it possesses a valid ambulance  service
  operating certificate issued pursuant to this article or has been issued
  a  statement  of  registration.  No advanced life support first response
  service shall operate unless it possesses a valid advanced life  support
  first  responder service operating certificate. Effective January first,
  two thousand, no ambulance service shall be operated unless it possesses
  a valid operating certificate.
    2. The department shall issue an initial certificate to  an  ambulance
  service  certified  prior  to  the  effective  date of this section upon
  submission of proof that it is the holder of a valid  ambulance  service
  certificate  and  is  otherwise in compliance with provisions of section
  three thousand nine of this article.
    2-a. Prior to January first, two thousand, the department shall  issue
  an  initial  certificate to a registered ambulance service in possession
  of a valid registration provided that such service has  been  issued  an
  exemption issued by a regional council pursuant to subdivision five-a of
  section three thousand three of this article.
    3.  The  department  shall issue an initial certificate to an advanced
  life support first response service upon submission of proof  that  such
  advanced  life support first response service is staffed and equipped in
  accordance with rules  and  regulations  promulgated  pursuant  to  this
  article  and is otherwise in compliance with provisions of section three
  thousand nine of this article.
    4. A certificate issued to  an  ambulance  service  or  advanced  life
  support first response service shall be valid for two years. The initial
  certification  fee shall be one hundred dollars. Thereafter the biennial
  fee shall be in accordance with the schedule of fees established by  the
  commissioner  pursuant  to  this  article.  However,  there  shall be no
  initial or renewal certification fee required of a  voluntary  ambulance
  service or voluntary advanced life support first response service.
    5. No initial certificate (except initial certificates issued pursuant
  to  subdivision  two  of  this  section)  shall  be  issued  unless  the
  commissioner finds that the proposed operator or operators are competent
  and fit to operate  the  service  and  that  the  ambulance  service  or
  advanced  life support first response service is staffed and equipped in
  accordance with rules  and  regulations  promulgated  pursuant  to  this
  article.
    6.  No  ambulance  service  or  advanced  life  support first response
  service shall begin operation without prior approval of the  appropriate
  regional  council,  or  if  there  is  no  appropriate  regional council
  established such  ambulance  service  or  advanced  life  support  first
  response  service  shall apply for approval from the state council as to
  the public need for the establishment of additional ambulance service or
  advanced life support first response service, pursuant to section  three
  thousand eight of this article.
    7.  Applications  for  a  certificate shall be made by the owner of an
  ambulance service  or  advanced  life  support  first  response  service
  operating  for  profit  or  the  responsible  official  of  a  voluntary
  ambulance service or advanced life support first response  service  upon
  forms  provided by the department.  The application shall state the name
  and address of the owner and such other information  as  the  department
  may require pursuant to rules and regulations.

    8.  For  purposes  of  this article, competent means that any proposed
  operator of  any  ambulance  service  or  advanced  life  support  first
  response service who is already or had been within the last ten years an
  incorporator,  director,  sponsor, principal stockholder, or operator of
  any  ambulance  service,  hospital, private proprietary home for adults,
  residence for adults, or non-profit home for the aged or blind which has
  been issued an operating certificate by the state department  of  social
  services,  or  a halfway house, hostel, or other residential facility or
  institution for the care, custody, or treatment of the mentally disabled
  subject to the approval by the department  of  mental  hygiene,  or  any
  invalid   coach  service  subject  to  approval  by  the  department  of
  transportation, is rendering or did render  a  substantially  consistent
  high  level  of  care.  For  purposes  of  this  subdivision,  the state
  emergency medical services council shall adopt  rules  and  regulations,
  subject  to  the approval of the commissioner, to establish the criteria
  to be used to define substantially consistent high level  of  care  with
  respect  to  ambulance  services,  advanced  life support first response
  services, and invalid coaches, except that the commissioner may not find
  that a consistently high level of care has  been  rendered  where  there
  have  been  violations  of the state EMS code, or other applicable rules
  and regulations, that (i) threatened  to  directly  affect  the  health,
  safety,  or  welfare of any patient, and (ii) were recurrent or were not
  promptly corrected. For purposes of this article, the rules  adopted  by
  the   state  hospital  review  and  planning  council  with  respect  to
  subdivision three of section twenty-eight hundred one-a of this  chapter
  shall  apply to other types of operators. Fit means that the operator or
  proposed operator (a) has not been convicted of a crime or pleaded  nolo
  contendere  to  a felony charge involving murder, manslaughter, assault,
  sexual abuse, theft, robbery, fraud, embezzlement, drug abuse,  or  sale
  of  drugs  and  (b)  is  not  or  was  not subject to a state or federal
  administrative order relating  to  fraud  or  embezzlement,  unless  the
  commissioner   finds  that  such  conviction  or  such  order  does  not
  demonstrate a present risk or danger to patients or the public.