EMS crews scramble as Maine hospitals end drug partnership

MaineHealth will stop supplying controlled substances to about 90 EMS agencies on July 14, and Northern Light Health will end roughly 50 medication agreements under a new DEA rule allowing agencies to administer drugs with their own registrations. The rule, issued in March, is framed as a pathway, but hospital leaders say it pressures EMS to register. Registration costs can reach tens of thousands of dollars to upgrade safes and record-keeping for fentanyl, midazolam and ketamine, while ongoing drug purchases from wholesalers replace hospital refills. Small agencies fear the burden will erode rural coverage, and critics call the deadline a manufactured crisis.