Emergency Medical Services Trust Fund

The Florida Department of Health administers Emergency Medical Services Trust Fund resources under Section 401.113, Florida Statutes. The statute authorizes the Department to dispense funds contained in the Emergency Medical Services Trust Fund to counties through county, matching, and rural funding mechanisms. The overall purpose of these funds is to improve and expand pre-hospital emergency medical services in Florida. Funds deposited into the EMS Trust Fund are distributed annually according to statutory allocations, including county disbursements and matching and rural grants. The matching and rural grant portion is intended to support activities that strengthen emergency medical services and related lifesaving capabilities throughout the state. Forty percent of EMS Trust Fund monies are available for matching and rural grants to local agencies, municipalities, emergency medical services organizations, and youth athletic organizations. Eligible purposes identified by the Department include conducting research, increasing existing levels of emergency medical services, evaluation, community education, injury-prevention programs, and training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other lifesaving and first aid techniques. Within this allocation, 90 percent of the monies are available on a cash matching basis through matching grants, while 10 percent are available to rural EMS agencies. Rural grant funds may also support the improvement, expansion, or continuation of services provided by those agencies. Matching grants require recipients to provide a cash contribution equal to 25 percent of the total grant amount approved by the Florida Department of Health. The Department illustrates this requirement with a $10,000 total grant example: the Department would provide $7,500, representing 75 percent, while the recipient would contribute $2,500, representing 25 percent. Rural grants are treated differently and may require up to a 10 percent match. The source does not provide a minimum or maximum individual award amount, total dollar amount available for the upcoming grant cycle, or anticipated number of awards. The statutory percentage allocations therefore should not be converted into dollar award values without additional information about the amount deposited in the EMS Trust Fund. Eligibility for matching and rural funding is described in terms of the entities and programs served. Matching and rural grant monies are available to local agencies, municipalities, emergency medical services organizations, and youth athletic organizations for the specified purposes. Rural grant funding is specifically available to rural EMS agencies. The source does not provide additional organizational qualification standards, application forms, narrative questions, required uploads, scoring criteria, review factors, or other application components for the upcoming cycle. Accordingly, applicants should rely on the Department's future cycle materials when they are released rather than assuming that requirements from another cycle will apply. The Fiscal Year 2026-27 EMS matching and rural grants have already been awarded, and the corresponding grant cycle is closed. The Florida Department of Health states that it expects to begin accepting new matching grant proposals for the 2027-28 cycle on January 1, 2027 and advises interested parties to check back periodically for the most current information. Because the next proposal opening date is explicitly announced and is in the future as of August 20, 2026, the opportunity is in an early-engagement or forecasted stage rather than currently accepting applications. No final application deadline, pre-application deadline, letter of intent requirement, award notification date, or performance period for the 2027-28 cycle is provided in the supplied source. The source separately describes Fiscal Year 2025-26 EMS county funds, which are distributed directly to each county's Board of County Commissioners and should not be confused with the application-based matching and rural grant cycle. County funds are distributed quarterly and do not require a grant application or Board of County Commissioners resolution. Counties are also not required to submit quarterly or final reports to the Department for those county funds, with recordkeeping remaining the recipient's responsibility. Those county disbursements cannot be used to match grant funds. For questions regarding Emergency Medical Services funding, the Florida Department of Health provides the program telephone number 850-245-4440 and email address EMSGrants@FLHealth.gov.

Ensure the proposed activity fits an authorized EMS purpose and budget for the applicable cash match; check the Florida Department of Health periodically for current 2027-28 application information.