State Office of Commercial Ambulance Licensing and Regulation (SOCALR) provides leadership and direction to support the operations and growth of Maryland’s commercial ambulance industry. It protects the health, safety, and welfare of persons using these services through the development and modification of statewide requirements for commercial ambulance services and vehicles and the uniform and equitable regulation of the commercial ambulance industry throughout Maryland.

At the conclusion of FY 2025, 37 commercial ambulance services and 464 commercial ambulance units held licenses issued by SOCALR.

SOCALR has updated and enhanced several of its operating systems and applications to improve productivity and reporting capabilities. During FY 2025, SOCALR expanded the Commercial Ambulance Services Dashboard. This dashboard gives each commercial service access to all of the information that SOCALR maintains.

SOCALR works closely with commercial services and thirdparty electronic Patient Care Records (ePCR) vendors to ensure data is imported accurately and efficiently from the vendor platforms. Patient care reports are randomly sampled for accuracy of information and reviewed for completeness and to verify the receipt of data from services that import from third-party vendors. These measures are used to improve patient care through the standardization and aggregation of patient care data.

In May 2021, under the Governor’s Emergency Declaration, SOCALR implemented a regulatory change that allowed Commercial BLS ambulances to be driven by non-EMS-licensed drivers. A waiver program was implemented to allow commercial services, who have gained approvals, to employ drivers on BLS units. Following the expiration of the emergency declaration, this program was approved by the EMS Board and adopted into COMAR. Currently, SOCALR has granted the waiver to 15 commercial services, which employ 216 approved non-EMSlicensed drivers. In Fiscal Year 2025, SOCALR worked with the Commercial Services to develop and implement regulations changes that expand this program to ALS units.

Ambulance Licensing and Renewal
SOCALR continues to maintain a year-round licensure renewal schedule, inspecting all commercial ambulances at least once during the year. In addition to yearly unit renewal inspections, SOCALR conducts random unit inspections throughout the year.

In FY 2025, SOCALR conducted random inspections on 110 days, visited 655 sites, and inspected 109 units. Additional inspections included nine surveys of licensed commercial services bases. A team of SOCALR personnel who provide follow-up reports outlining any corrective actions necessary to maintain COMAR Title 30.09 compliance conduct these base surveys.