There are about 550,000 air ambulance transports each year in the United States, according to the association’s estimates. The Association of Air Medical Services, an industry trade group, says that air ambulance companies have high fixed costs including nurses, mechanics and pilots, and that this legislation would cause bases to close. In June, following President Trump’s call to end surprise billing, the Senate health committee approved a package of bills aiming to lower the cost of medical care, including a plan to end unexpected air ambulance bills - in part by requiring air ambulance companies to accept in-network rates from insurance companies. Others will pay part of the bill, and patients are typically billed for the remainder, a process called balance billing.ĭoug Flanders, a spokesman for Air Methods, said the company has increased its number of in-network agreements with commercial health plans and now has more than 27 in-network agreements, which he said accounts for 35 percent of the company’s privately insured patients.

Some insurance companies won’t pay anything when a provider is out-of-network. “Patients and their families get caught in the middle.” “The air ambulance companies have escalated charges tremendously,” said Tom Judge, the executive director of LifeFlight of Maine, a nonprofit that runs air ambulance services for the state. In addition, the report said, the median price charged by air ambulance providers was about $36,400 for a helicopter and $40,600 for an airplane transport, typically used for longer trips. report examining air ambulance transports of privately insured patients found that 69 percent of about 20,700 transports studied were out-of-network in 2017. Patients ‘caught in the middle’Ī 2019 G.A.O. “And more importantly, there’s not really any recourse for consumers” who feel they have been unfairly charged. “There is no infrastructure set up to handle this,” said Donna Rosato, a senior editor at Consumer Reports who has examined air ambulance charges. But the cost has not decreased: Air ambulance prices doubled between 20, according to a 2017 Government Accountability Office report. It’s a situation that can happen to anyone, but it’s especially troubling for young families who are often already struggling to afford basic necessities and child care - where just one stroke of bad luck can be devastating.Īs the industry has grown, the number of air ambulance helicopters has risen. Pence, said his practice currently has about 100 clients who received large, unexpected bills from air ambulance companies. Over the past five years, more than a dozen other federal lawsuits have accused air ambulance providers of unfair billing practices.

Pence is one of the lead plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed in July against Air Methods and Rocky Mountain Holdings. “Frankly, I just feel like they’re preying on people at the worst time of their lives.” Pence, whose daughter has Turner syndrome, a condition in which girls are born with a single X chromosome.

“They kept calling me and I told them, ‘I don’t have anything to pay you with,’” said Ms. Pence received another bill for the remaining balance. But because the air ambulance provider was considered out-of-network, Ms. Her insurance eventually paid about $20,000.

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