I was air lifted from gasden to st Vincent’s the bill was 60k don’t remember it but worth every penny

I dont see how an operation could stay a float if it's not in the network. Hopefully it will get adjusted and insurance will cover most of it.

It’s a good idea to pay for the service. I bought 5 of the biggest smoke bombs I could find at the fireworks stands couple years ago and keep two in my boat drybox, two in my truck, and one in my hunting pack just in case. If you or someone with you needs a helicopter, every second counts.

Not always. Our local ambulance service has two ambulances to serve Dallas and Lowndes county. Many times, when an officer requested a ETA on an ambulance we were told that they were having to get one out of Montgomery because the local ones were tied up. In order to keep as many of the local ones free during peak times, if someone needs to be transported to B'ham, Montgomery or Tuscaloosa as in my wife's case, the local guys will bypass the local hospital and take the patient straight to the helipad to fly them out. They do this in order to keep the local ambulances free to catch more calls instead of being tied up transporting out of town. I personally have responded to a situation where a woman broke here forearm. Not even a compound fracture, but since Selma at that time didn't have an orthopedist, she was put on a helicopter to Montgomery. This was not an isolated incident either.

My wife was in pain when she broke he hip, but I guarantee, she would have chosen to bear it out for the 20 minutes that the helicopter beat me to Tuscaloosa and ridden with me if she had known that BCBS would only pay $11,000 of the $61,000 and she would be stuck with a $50,000 bill.

are you have=ing to finance the remainding payment like a house or car at like 600 a month?

If anybody ever puts me on another helicopter, I will be unconscious.
And if I don't die, I will stomp his ass when I get well.

My wife is making payments on it from the money she makes tutoring Chinese kids every morning and most evenings. She did all that and I honestly don't know what the arrangements are.

I thought air evac was like Anesthesiologists. Ain't none of them in a network. I pay $65 a year to cover The Boss and I.

Insurance is the problem with health care and specifically the government being in the insurance business.

As far as billing goes remember the helicopter service only get paid when they physically have a patient on board, all the times they launch but are canceled or don’t transport cost as well and I’m sure it’s passed on to the folks that do pay. Also realize in Alabama the flight crew can do more advanced procedures then the medics on the ground and also some do carry blood on the air craft. Flying patients from hospital to hospital normally has to be pre approved by insurance and the doctors before calling them.



Air methods which is a parent company to several helicopter services shut down several bases this year mainly over all the insurance changes and bs.

We need a helicopter base close to or in limestone county again the closet aircraft is 20-25 mins away.

My air evac insurance is through AirMedCare. I got this email from them this morning asking me to contact my representatives in Congress to oppose S.1895. One provision of this bill would end the surprise billing from air evac providers.

Sec. 105. Ending surprise air ambulance bills.
 Patients are held harmless from surprise air ambulance bills. Patients are only required to pay the in-network cost sharing amount for air ambulance transport, and air ambulance providers are barred from sending patients balance bills for more than the in-network cost-sharing amount.
 For surprise air ambulance bills, health plans would pay air ambulance providers the local median contracted commercial amount that the insurer negotiated with other providers and agreed upon in that geographic area.
 Health plans without enough internal data to calculate median contracted rates in a particular geographic area have the option of using unbiased external data sources, such as a state’s all-payer claims database, to establish a benchmark.

Currently air evac billing is unregulated by Congress.

I'm doing the opposite and have contracted my representatives saying I support the passing of S.1895.

Why did the woman who broke her arm even need an ambulance? Seems like that could have been handled by POV to Baptist south. If you are in a life threatening situation (Gunshot, Brain bleed trauma etc.) Time does matter. I do believe CARE ambulance only has 1 truck in Lowndes and 1 truck in Dallas. 2 in Autauga and not sure how many in Montgomery. I hate to say it but I do understand taking people straight to the helipad in Selma. The Vaughan does not have the services to deal with anything serious as far as trauma. Just like Prattville, It has a good ER and good ER physicians but all they can really do is stabilize the patient and either send them to Baptist South or UAB. And if you make your only truck in the county go all the way to UAB or even Montgomery you take away that ambulance for at least 2 hours. Plus, I do not think either of the trucks in Lowndes or Dallas are critical care trucks. Im no expert on the subject but I have worked in a hospital before and had the job of helping arrange transports. It can be stressful. Im sure you know all about that being a former LEO

Any time the government mandates the use of a private business, it becomes THE problem even if it wasn't already. Insurance is indeed the major problem but not the only one.

Consider this: Individuals are currently required by law to have vehicle insurance in 48 out of 50 states. Individuals who can afford to self insure are not given the option to do so in any of them. At the same time, governments (city/county/state) are allowed to self insure (often without even having to escrow the money they claim to have to cover required minimums).

The cost for most rotary wing aircraft are around $400 an hour of air time. Add to that a medical crew that consists of at least one advanced life support paramedic or a nurse (sometimes there will be additional crew members if needed - up to and including a physician(s)). Those costs are pretty easy to figure out with some simple math. You can negotiate any and all costs with them.

Here is a detailed study from 2017 of the costs of emergent air medical transport conducted by the air transport association for the US. It will be skewed upward of course but you can still use this as the basis for your negotiations. The air transport company will most likely try to screw you if they can.

https://aams.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Air-Medical-Services-Cost-Study-Report.pdf

Private insurance with no government intrusion/mandates who are transparent are fine with me. Non-transparent methodologies and government mandated insurance is an absolutely disgraceful abuse of a poorly educated populace.

She was involved in an auto crash to which an ambulance was called, probably by a witness. One of the Dallas County ambulances is often stationed at the Tyler Volunteer Fire Department so they can respond to both Dallas or Lowndes County. Time matters on critical calls, but not so much on broken forearms. Sadly, air transports are simply a way for the ambulance drivers to remain free for other calls. And the truth is they know that in Selma, the person that they will be flying will often times not pay the ambulance bill and they certainly won't pay the helicopter bill leaving the rest of us to make up the difference so they can have the service. For many, if not most, of Selma an ambulance is just a free taxi ride to the ER for free (in their minds) medical services. Of course, we all know who ends up paying for it in the end.

I was air lifted out by Erlanger’s helicopters in 2000 from a National Park. At that time, insurance paid 100% once the out of pocket was met.

Based on the tables in that study and comparing to the prices that were charged as reported here and elsewhere - and it looks like the air transport
folks are charging 4 to 8 times actually cost.

That is a great return on investment.

X2

Not showing coverage in BHam and Montgomery from what I saw.

Got airlifted from Little River A: to USA W & C in Mobile (30-40 miles as crow flies).

$37k and change bill. Insurance was not going to pay any of it to start with. I'm of course flipping out as to what I'm gonna do.


I'm in bed at home recovering a few weeks later and I see the same Air Medivac helicopter has delivered a football (the game ball. whatever that means) to J U Blacksher High School's opening football game. I can only presume as a publicity stunt.

WHO paid for THAT flight? I about lost my shucks over that one.

I was NOT bleeding much at all, wasn't unconscious, wasn't in cardiac arrest. Why did I need the helicopter? Who made that call? Local yokel on the Rescue Squad. You can just imagine what an ethical/moral dilemma it is to feel anger toward people who came to get you off the side of the road.