New Hampshire

Licensing authority

Who actually issues an EMS licence in New Hampshire?

New Hampshire Division of Fire Standards and Training and Emergency Medical Services, Department of Safety

New Hampshire runs EMS jointly with fire training under the Department of Safety, so EMS licensure shares an agency with firefighter certification.

Authority website

Where is New Hampshire's EMS licensing office online?

fstems.dos.nh.gov

Partly supported

The division's own site. Its front page is organised as task menus — 'Become an EMS Provider', 'Renew an EMS License' — rather than as content, so the substantive requirements sit a level deeper.

Contact

Who do I call or email about New Hampshire licensure?

(603) 223-4200

Partly supported

From the National Registry's State EMS Offices directory, which carries the Registry's own warning: 'Information provided on this page is for convenience. Always verify information directly with the State EMS Office.'

Can I take a contract on privilege alone

Can I work a 13-week contract in New Hampshire on my home-state licence?

No — you need full state licensure

Partly supported

The Commission's current state-specific page explicitly says New Hampshire has not yet joined the EMS Compact. That supports the absence of a Compact privilege in this destination; the full-license-required assessment is the resulting licensing implication and remains partial rather than a direct quotation of the state's licensing rules.

Compact law enacted

Has New Hampshire passed the EMS Compact into law?

Unverified

Status

No

Partly supported

ABSENCE-BASED. New Hampshire does not appear in the Commission's State Laws table, which describes itself as a complete list of enacted statutes. Confidence is medium rather than high because no source affirmatively states that New Hampshire is not a member — the claim follows from absence, and the Commission's own count of participating states does not match the number of rows in this table (see source_caveats).

Defect in this source The Commission's homepage counts 28 participating states while this State Laws table, which calls itself complete, lists 25 rows. The gap is Alaska, Arizona and Connecticut, which enacted in the 2025-2026 sessions and are footnoted on the homepage but absent from the table.

Compact law in force

Is New Hampshire's compact law actually in effect yet?

Unverified

Status

No

Delayed clause

No

Partly supported

ABSENCE-BASED, and downstream of compact.enacted: nothing can take effect in New Hampshire because nothing has been enacted. has_delayed_implementation_clause is false because there is no clause — not because a clause was read and found to be absent.

Connected to NEMSCD

Can my Privilege to Practice actually be verified in New Hampshire?

Status

No

Partly supported

The Commission's current state page says New Hampshire has not yet joined the EMS Compact. The Commission describes NEMSCD data as covering participating states, so this supports nonparticipation rather than an independent integration check. This does not establish legal activation or practitioner eligibility in other states.

The rule and its clock

What changed, and when did it take effect?

Citation

91 FR 5216

Published

2026-02-05

Effective

2026-03-09

The DEA final rule implementing the Protecting Patient Access to Emergency Medications Act of 2017 (PPAEMA). It amends 21 CFR parts 1300, 1301, 1304 and following to create the EMS agency registration and the storage, delivery and recordkeeping rules below.

The agency holds the registration now

Who holds the DEA registration an ambulance operates under?

Status

Yes

Category

Emergency Medical Services Agency

Scope

one registration per state covers every location the agency operates in that state

Before this rule most services ran narcotics under their medical director's practitioner registration. The registration now belongs to the agency, as its own DEA business-activity category.

Crossing state lines with the drug box

Does one DEA registration cover operating in another state?

Status

No

Detail

a separate DEA registration is required in each state the agency operates in

The fact that matters most to a traveler: compact privilege can carry your licence across a border, but it does not carry your agency's DEA registration. An agency running trucks in two states registers twice.

Pushing narcotics on standing orders

Can a medic administer controlled substances without the medical director present?

Status

Yes

Conditions

authorized by state law, under a valid standing or verbal order that meets the statutory conditions

Federal law now says yes, but only where state law agrees: EMS professionals are only allowed to make such administrations if authorized by State law. Whether your state's law does is the per-state question at the end of this section.

Storage on the truck

How do narcotics have to be stored in the vehicle?

Locked vehicle

Yes

Container

securely locked, substantially constructed cabinet or safe that cannot be readily removed

Hospital-run services

Does a hospital-based agency need its own registration?

Status

No

Detail

may keep operating under the hospital's registration

Hospital-based means owned or operated by a hospital. If you work for a hospital service, the drug box stays on the hospital's paper.

Restocking at the hospital

Can the truck restock controlled substances from a hospital?

Status

Yes

Detail

non-hospital-based agencies may receive controlled substances from a hospital to restock after an emergency response

What registration costs

What does the DEA registration cost an agency?

Amount

888

Per

three-year registration period

Government services pay nothing

Do municipal and fire-based services pay the fee?

Status

No

Detail

agencies operated by a state or local government are exempt from application fees

The switch-over window

When does an existing service have to move to the new registration?

Options

• immediately on the effective date
• at the expiration of the current registration
• three to six months before the renewal date

DEA recommends agencies contact their local field office to complete the transition.

Standing orders under state law

Does New Hampshire law let a medic push scheduled drugs on standing orders, the way the DEA rule assumes?

Status

Yes

Citation

RSA 318-B:10, V

Detail

New Hampshire's Controlled Drug Act itself says the physician's or emergency-trauma APRN's order authorizing an advanced EMS provider to administer a controlled drug may come as a standing order of local medical control set out in a protocol under RSA 153-A.

Read the sentence before this one and the answer looks like no: RSA 318-B:10, V says the provider 'may only administer such controlled prescription drugs upon receipt of orders to do so from a supervising physician or an emergency trauma advanced practice registered nurse.' The quoted sentence is what rescues it, by defining a standing order in a protocol as one of the permitted ways that order arrives. Two upstream gates still apply. The drug must be on a list the state EMS medical control board specifies with the pharmacy board's concurrence — RSA 153-A:5, III(f) — so an agency cannot add a controlled drug by protocol alone, and RSA 318-B:10, V requires prior establishment of medical control before the drugs may even be carried. New Hampshire protocols are also statewide rather than per-agency: RSA 153-A:20-a has the commissioner adopt the medical control board's protocols as rules.

A state registration on top of DEA's

Does New Hampshire require its own controlled-substance registration for EMS agencies?

Status

No

Detail

New Hampshire's Controlled Drug Act licenses only manufacturers and wholesalers; there is no state controlled-drug registration for EMS agencies or for practitioners generally, so DEA registration is the only one.

Partly supported

The quote shows the outer edge of New Hampshire's licensing scheme rather than stating an exemption, so it supports the value by exhaustion. What was checked: RSA 318-B has exactly one licensing section, 318-B:3, and it reaches manufacturers and wholesalers only — the chapter carries no registration section for practitioners, hospitals, agencies or any other end user. RSA 318-B:6 then makes possession affirmatively lawful 'if in the regular course of business, occupation, profession, employment, or duty of the possessor,' and RSA 318-B:10, V lets an advanced EMS provider possess board-specified controlled drugs for emergency use without naming any registration. RSA 318-B:5 lets a wholesaler sell to a practitioner or to a hospital's designated person on a written order, again with no registrant class for EMS. A reader should still confirm with the Board of Pharmacy, since we are reading an absence.