Personnel Licenses Extended until August 31, 2020

On June 3, 2020, the Maine EMS Board approved an extension of certain EMS licenses based upon the current COVID pandemic and challenges for obtaining necessary education.

Maine EMS recognizes the critical role of its EMS and EMD professionals in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the ongoing public health emergency, the Maine EMS Board recognizes that licensees may have had difficulty in obtaining all the necessary continuing education requirements up to this point to renew their individual license. As a result, the Maine EMS Board has waived certain aspects of the Maine EMS rules to extend the lifecycle of certain EMS/EMD licenses.

This waiver applies to the following personnel licenses:

  • Emergency Medical Responder (EMR)

  • Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)

  • Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (AEMT)

  • Paramedic

  • Instructor/Coordinator

  • Emergency Medical Dispatchers

     

Effective immediately, personnel of any of the above license levels whose license expires between March - July 2020 (inclusive) and are not able to meet all CEH or training re-licensure requirements by their current expiration dates deadlines will have their deadlines extended to 31 Aug 2020. This deadline extension applies to both satisfaction of CEH requirements and submission of re-licensure applications. In addition, all valid CEH hours obtained after 1 March 2017 will be accepted towards re-licensure until 31 August 2020.

Personnel of any of the above license levels whose license expires in the same time frames, and who have met or will meet all applicable CEH or training re-licensure requirements by their normal expiration dates are asked to submit your application and CEHs and re-license as normal.

This license extension is not applicable to Training Center, EMS Service, or EMD Center licenses.

Personnel re-licensing using deadline extensions will be issued a new Maine EMS license with expiration dates that will revert to the original month of expiration. This means if you have a current EMT license that expires on 31 March 2020, but you re-license in June 2020, your new EMT license will expire as in the following examples:

  • If you relicense with hour-for-hour CEHs, your license would expire on 31 March 2023.

  • If you relicense with a NREMT certification, your license would expire on 31 March 2022.

  • If you have a current EMD license that expires in May 2020 and you re-license in June 2020 with a valid IAED certificate and are affiliated with an EMD center, your new EMD license will expire in May 2022.

EMS personnel who use NREMT certifications to renew their Maine EMS provider licenses should note that at this time, NREMT has not granted any further extension to the existing one, which was announced in the NREMT recertification bulletin “National Registry Extends 2020 Recertification Deadline; Modifies Requirements,” dated 13 March 2020. NOTE:  The NREMT extension still ends on 30 Jun 2020. This can be found at:  https://www.nremt.org/rwd/public/document/covid-19

Maine EMS is committed to the support of EMS clinicians and emergency medical dispatchers throughout the state, and keeping personnel updated as developments or changes in this situation occur. All questions or issues regarding this waiver should be directed to Maine EMS.