Draft bill text.

Starting text for the three bills, written against the statutes as they read on October 30, 2026. The Legislative Research Commission drafts the official version of any bill a legislator files; this is what we would hand a sponsor and a drafter.

Underlined text is new. ~~[Bracketed, struck text]~~ is removed. Everything else is current law, copied from the Legislative Research Commission, except the one block marked as a drafting instruction. “…” marks current text left out here because it does not change.

Protect care, and name the dispatcher · KRS 508.025

Both bills add to the same list in KRS 508.025(1)(a), so they are shown together. They can be filed as one bill or as two; filed alone, either new item would be numbered 12, and new subsection (3) would refer to item 12. Nothing changes in the penalty: third‑degree assault stays a Class D felony, or Class C during a declared disaster emergency inside the disaster area.

Section 1. KRS 508.025 is amended to read as follows:

(1) A person is guilty of assault in the third degree when the actor:

(a) Recklessly, with a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, or intentionally causes or attempts to cause physical injury to:

…

3. A healthcare provider as defined in KRS 311.821 or other person employed by or under contract with a health clinic, doctor’s office, dental office, long‑term care facility, hospital, or a hospital‑owned or affiliate outpatient facility, if the event occurs in or on the premises of a jail, penitentiary, local or state correctional or detention facility, including a facility which provides for the care, treatment, or detention of a juvenile charged with or adjudicated delinquent because of a public offense or as a youthful offender, health clinic, doctor’s office, dental office, long‑term care facility, hospital, or a hospital‑owned or affiliate outpatient facility;

…

5. Paid or volunteer emergency medical services personnel certified or licensed pursuant to KRS Chapter 311A, if the event occurs while personnel are performing job‑related duties;

…

10. A public or private elementary or secondary school or school district classified or certified employee, school bus driver, or other school employee acting in the course and scope of the employee’s employment; ~~[or]~~

11. A public or private elementary or secondary school or school district volunteer acting in the course and scope of that person’s volunteer service for the school or school district;

12. A healthcare provider as defined in KRS 311.821 who is licensed or certified to practice in this state, or authorized to practice in this state under an interstate compact, if the event occurs while the provider is providing, or traveling to provide, patient care at any location, whether or not the provider is on duty, including in an ambulance or aircraft, at the scene of an emergency, or in a patient’s home; or

13. A public safety telecommunicator as defined in KRS 15.530, or a person performing emergency medical dispatch for an ambulance service licensed under KRS Chapter 311A, if the event occurs while the person is performing job‑related duties;

…

(3) As used in subsection (1)(a)13. of this section, “emergency medical dispatch” means receiving requests for emergency medical services and dispatching or coordinating the response of emergency medical services personnel.

Notes for a drafter

Item 12 is the care bill. It leaves item 3 alone and adds coverage that follows the provider. The definition it borrows, KRS 311.821(5), is broad — it names physicians, nurses, nurse’s aides, hospital and clinic employees and “any other person who furnishes or assists in the furnishing of healthcare services.” The words “licensed or certified to practice in this state, or authorized to practice in this state under an interstate compact” keep item 12 to licensed and certified providers, including Nurses practicing here on a multistate license. “Whether or not the provider is on duty” reaches the Nurse who stops to help a stranger; without it, a court could read “providing patient care” as limited to employment.
KBEMS puts Nurses on ambulances by regulation: 202 KAR 7:560 requires a registered nurse as primary attendant on pediatric and neonatal specialty‑care units and allows one on adult critical‑care units. A nursing license is issued under KRS 314, not KRS 311A, so item 5 does not reach that Nurse unless they also hold an EMT or paramedic card. Item 12 closes that gap without touching item 5.
Item 13 is the dispatch bill. “Public safety telecommunicator” is already defined in KRS 15.530(5), but only for public employees. The second clause and the definition in new subsection (3) reach Dispatchers who work for private and hospital‑based ambulance services.
Like HB 188 (2026), which amended this same list, either bill would carry a corrections impact statement.
Worth checking with a drafter: a school nurse employed by a health department rather than a school district may be neither a “school employee” under item 10 nor on any premises listed in item 3. Item 12 would cover that nurse.

Finish HB 713 · KRS 216.701 and 216.703, and a new section of KRS Chapter 311A

Kentucky’s workplace‑violence law for health facilities, KRS 216.701 to 216.709, already applies to ambulance services, because “health facility” takes its meaning from KRS 216B.015. These sections make it reach the truck and the scene, and make the check real.

Section 1. KRS 216.701 is amended to read as follows:

As used in this chapter:

…

(3) “Workplace” means any property that is owned or leased by the health facility at which the official business of the health care worker is conducted, and, for a health facility that is, or that operates, an ambulance service licensed under KRS Chapter 311A, also means, as to that service, any ambulance or other vehicle the service operates and any location where its health care workers are providing patient care or responding to a request for emergency medical services;

(4) “Workplace safety” means the process of protecting health care workers’ physical well‑being from workplace violence; ~~[and]~~

(5) “Workplace violence” means any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the workplace~~[.]~~; and

(6) “Premises,” as used in KRS 216.705 and 216.709, includes the workplace.

Section 2. KRS 216.703 is amended to read as follows:

…

(3) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the cabinet shall accept that a health facility, other than a health facility that is, or that operates, an ambulance service licensed under KRS Chapter 311A, as to that service, is in compliance with KRS 216.701 to 216.709 if the health facility:

…

Section 3. KRS 216.705 is amended to read as follows:

(1) (a) Health facilities shall develop and execute a workplace safety assessment to identify the risk of workplace violence against health care workers.

(b) Health facilities shall create a workplace safety plan to address the risks identified in the workplace safety assessment. Each health facility shall develop the workplace safety plan in a way that affords appropriate representation from, and the meaningful participation of, all the different types of health care workers operating on the premises.

…

Section 4. A NEW SECTION OF KRS CHAPTER 311A IS CREATED TO READ AS FOLLOWS:

(1) At each inspection of a licensed ambulance service, including the inspection conducted before license renewal, the board shall verify that the ambulance service has:

(a) A current workplace safety assessment and workplace safety plan as required by KRS 216.705;

(b) Provided the violence prevention training required by KRS 216.707; and

(2) The board shall report each finding of noncompliance to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

(3) The board may promulgate administrative regulations in accordance with KRS Chapter 13A to implement this section.

Drafting instruction, not bill text. Add, as passed by the House on March 9, 2026, the worker‑facing provisions of HB 713 (2026): the posted felony‑warning notice; notice to health care workers when policies, procedures or the workplace safety plan change; and the change to KRS 216.709(3) requiring a facility to tell the person involved in an incident what was done and any plan for future action.

Notes for a drafter

Section 1 reaches licensed ambulance services, including those run by a hospital. A hospital’s other workplaces do not change.
“Premises” is the word KRS 216.705 and 216.709 use for who has a seat on the safety plan and which incidents are reported and recorded. New subsection (6) carries the new workplace into both. The Reviser of Statutes would place the new definition alphabetically; it does not cite a subsection number, so renumbering does not break it.
Section 2 is what makes the inspection mean something. Under KRS 216.703(3), the cabinet must accept an accredited or Medicare/Medicaid‑certified facility as compliant whatever its plan says. Section 2 takes ambulance services, including hospital‑run services, out of that safe harbor for that service only; without it, a KBEMS finding would change nothing.
Section 4 adds three items to an inspection that already happens. Under 202 KAR 7:501, the board inspects an agency’s premises before granting or renewing a license, including its vehicles, equipment and supplies, and its personnel records, policy manuals and other required reports.
Section 3 borrows one phrase. The federal Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (H.R. 2531 / S. 1232, introduced in 2025 and still in committee) requires plans built “with the meaningful participation of direct care employees, other employees, and employee representatives,” and it covers “any emergency services and transport, including such services provided by firefighters and emergency responders” and “any field work setting, including home health care.” Sections 1 and 3 bring those two ideas into Kentucky’s law. With new subsection (6) of KRS 216.701, “operating on the premises” in Section 3 reaches the crews on the truck.
This draft does not carry over HB 713’s other changes to the safe harbor (the annual attestation, the end of the assisted‑living and state‑supplementation safe harbors, and the cabinet’s power to require compliance on survey or complaint evidence) or its repeal of the cabinet’s annual audit and guidelines duty. Those are worth debating on their own; they are not what this bill is for.

What this page is not

It is not legal advice and it is not a filed bill. It is our starting text, and we expect drafters and committee staff to improve it. If you see an error, write to info@kyems.org.