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EMS Membership - FAQs

In 2018, through the combination of East Texas Medical Center Regional Healthcare System (ETMC) and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (UT Health Northeast), UT Health East Texas was formed. ETMC EMS became UT Health East Texas EMS. We are one of Texas’ largest private, not-for-profit providers of emergency ambulance service. Our regional trauma care system is part of the UT Health East Texas System, with a flagship healthcare center in Tyler and a network of regional hospitals offering advanced care in a variety of services: bariatric health, behavioral health, cancer, cardiovascular health, digestive diseases, Level I trauma and emergency centers, neurological health, orthopedics, and wound healing services.

Call 911 in the event of an emergency, and the EMS that serves you will be contacted.

Our ambulances are strategically stationed throughout the service area, allowing us to respond swiftly to every call in our service area.

No, UT Health East Texas EMS membership no longer includes emergency air transport.

Call your sheriff’s department. They can tell you which ambulance service will be sent to your household.

Yes, you will be taken to the hospital of your choice, unless specific medical conditions require a higher level of care than is available at the facility you requested. In that case, UT Health East Texas EMS will take you to the nearest hospital providing the level of care required.

Click on the link below, enter the activation code “UTEMS” and follow the enrollment instructions.

If you have any questions call 1-800-642-JOIN (5646).

Your membership covers you, your spouse and your children younger than 21 years of age (25 if in college) living in your residence, for unlimited medically necessary transports throughout the UT Health East Texas EMS service area if transported by UT Health East Texas EMS ambulances. Your membership period is Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

Medically necessary is defined as specific need of ambulance transportation to or from a healthcare facility (hospital, nursing home) within the UT Health East Texas EMS primary service area where use of alternative forms of transportation (wheelchair transports, private car, taxi) would be medically inappropriate given the patient’s condition. UT Health East Texas EMS reserves the right to require physician certification of medical necessity for all non-emergencies. If abuse is found to exist, UT Health East Texas EMS reserves the right to terminate membership.

Your annual membership fee is $60. For existing members, the fee is $50 for renewal membership through Aug. 31; after that date the renewal price is $60.

By comparison, the average ambulance transport costs $750.

Yes, we accept assignment for all Medicare ambulance transports.

Yes. If you provide the information, we will file your insurance directly.

As one of the state’s largest private, not-for-profit providers of emergency ambulance service, UT Health East Texas EMS is known by thousands of Texans as “the one to call.” We earned our reputation over more than three decades by our commitment to top quality in every phase of the operation. All our ambulances are equipped with Advanced Cardiac Life Support and staffed by highly trained, certified paramedics and emergency medical technicians. All dispatchers are certified as an emergency medical dispatcher. It’s all coordinated by one of the state’s most comprehensive communications systems, sending the nearest ambulance wherever it’s needed within our service area.

For more information about UT Health EMS Membership please call 1-800-642-5646.