ALBANY — On Wednesday, the New York state Senate passed a raft of legislation aimed at cutting costs and encouraging more volunteers for the state’s emergency medical service providers and ambulance companies.

The legislation would address some, but not all, of the issues that EMS staffers, advocates and experts have been voicing in the capital for years, including at a press conference earlier this month. The five bills together would allow ambulance providers to be reimbursed by Medicaid when they treat a patient at their location without taking them to the hospital, and would allow them to be paid to take patients to venues other than emergency rooms, where appropriate.

“Right now, EMS providers do not get paid for the work that they do, if they treat someone on site, they do not get reimbursed for that work,” said Senator Michelle Hinchey, D-Kingston.

She said that at the same time New York hospitals are facing significant wait times at ERs, ambulances are being forced by law to bring all their patients to the ER for treatment, even when the ER isn’t the best place for the patient to get treatment. Under the bills she’s supporting, ambulance providers could save patients from trips anywhere if their problem can be treated without taking them to a facility, and patients that do need care but not at the hospital level can be taken to urgent cares, outpatient facilities and standalone ERs.

Another Hinchey bill would also permit emergency medical technicians and advanced paramedics to conduct blood transfusions while transporting patients, which she said could save lives by providing more expedient access to blood when needed. Current state law permits ambulance blood transfusions only when a patient is being moved from one hospital to another — not on the way from the scene of their call to the hospital.

Another bill supported by the Senate Democrats would formally declare EMS as an essential service, which would make it a government requirement that ambulance service be available in some fashion in every community in the state. It would also permit local governments to take wider action to support EMS services, by creating ambulance districts formally, and would require a statewide emergency medical plan to be developed.

“This has widespread support from across the EMS community, including FDNY, providers in New York City, providers in upstate and our rural communities, as well as all the municipal organizations, and it is a must do bill,” said Senator Shelley Mayer, D-White Plains.

The package would not go so far as to require a higher pay rate for EMS providers when they transport or care for a Medicaid patient — something that ambulance operators have been requesting for years now. It would, however, permit the Department of Health to establish a uniform assessment fee for private ambulance companies that work with the state’s Medicaid program, which would then be used to increase medical assistant payments to ambulance providers.

Another bill would boost the volunteer firefighter and ambulance volunteer personal income tax credit to $800 for individuals and $1,600 for married couples. It would also allow those eligible to receive that income credit as well as a local property tax credit.

In a press conference Wednesday morning, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, Senator Monica Martinez, D-Hauppauge, Hinchey and Mayer said they had the votes to pass the bills in the Senate this week, and Senators voted in support of the bills later that day.

While these bills have all passed the Senate, they have yet to move out of committee in the Assembly, which needs to pass identical legislation for the bills to move to the Governor’s desk for final approval. When asked, Cousins said the Senate Democrats are working with the Assembly to move these bills forward with less than a week left of voting days for the session.

“We’re constantly working with our partners to get these over the finish line,” she said.