§ 4-3. Certificates of public convenience and necessity.

(a)

It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, corporation, or other business or governmental entity to provide or advertise that it provides ambulance service anywhere upon the streets of Miami-Dade County or in the airspace above Miami-Dade County, without first obtaining a certificate of public convenience and necessity issued in accordance with this article.

(b)

Providers of ambulance service based outside Miami-Dade County shall be exempt from the provisions of this section, except that any person or entity providing intra-county ambulance service within Miami-Dade County shall comply with this article.

(c)

The following are exempt from the provisions of this article:

(1)

Air ambulance providing only inter-county or inter-state transfers.

(2)

Any ambulance owned and operated by the Federal Government.

(3)

A vehicle operated under the direct supervision of a licensed physician and used to transport patients entirely within the privately owned and controlled area of Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant pursuant to an emergency management plan approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

(4)

Any hospital or other type of medical facility utilizing its own ground vehicles at no fee for service under the direct supervision of a licensed physician in transporting persons to or from the hospital-operated helipad, or in transporting non-discharged patients for diagnostic or treatment services from one of the facility's corporate-owned buildings to another of the facility's corporate-owned buildings within its own medical campus. At no time shall such a one-way transport exceed one (1) mile in distance. Such service and vehicles shall comply with all requirements of Chapter 401, Florida Statutes.

(Ord. No. 94-93, § 2, 5-17-94; Ord. No. 01-38, § 1, 3-8-01)