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FAIRVIEW, Tenn (WTVF) — A few days before Christmas, 54-year-old Patricia Harrington started suffering what she thought was just a typical migraine but doctors would quickly discover her pounding headache was the result of an aneurysm which had hemorraghed in her brain.
The woman didn't have health insurance but it didn't matter because most health insurance doesn't cover medical evacs. Which is why people who travel frequently or live in a remote area sometimes buy a separate air evacuation policy.
When my husband was working at a Trauma Center in Colorado, they had a noninsured patient come in with a septic knee from a smaller rural hospital in an adjacent state. My husband was very angry because he felt like the referring institution absolutely should have been able to handle this guy's case and was dumping him because of his non paying status. I think he even considered calling CMS to file a complaint (don't know if he did or not). This guy no doubt got stuck with a $30-$40K bill from the air ambulance provider in addition to the costs of care he really needed.
Requiring a patient pay for services rendered is one thing, but creating huge costs for someone based on services that are completely unnecessary is a crummy thing to do.
The woman didn't have health insurance but it didn't matter because most health insurance doesn't cover medical evacs. Which is why people who travel frequently or live in a remote area sometimes buy a separate air evacuation policy.
People who live in remote areas often have an air evacuation policy for exactly this reason. Unfortunately, it would be easy for this not to be on someone's radar until they need the service.
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Originally Posted by writerwife
The air evac for my husband 2 yrs ago was 37K. Insurance covered it.
The average rate for a helicopter is around $6K per hour...being that a medical helicopter would be necessary for evacs, rates should be closer to around $10K, and that would be on the extreme high end.
The woman didn't have health insurance but it didn't matter because most health insurance doesn't cover medical evacs. Which is why people who travel frequently or live in a remote area sometimes buy a separate air evacuation policy.
Really depends on the policy. I've lived in fairly remote/rural places most of my life. The medical care I can reach without air travel is usually pretty limited, but that plays into the decision to live there. That's my responsibility...to know what I purchased. Obviously I pay attention to what my primary health insurance will and won't cover in terms of transportation. It only covers non-emergency transportation to reach medical services for specific conditions. Some of it doesn't seem logical, but it is what it is. My policy will cover emergency transport under specific circumstances. If ambulance surface transport is available at the time and elapsed time enroute is less critical, air evac can be declined. I also have a supplemental policy specific to air-evac. It isn't expensive. The two or three companies offering such coverage in the region have advertised it constantly for years. I was medivaced 120 miles by air recently. The charges (including enroute cardiac monitoring, IV care, ground transport by the same provider between hospital and airports) were about $62K.
Last edited by Parnassia; 02-02-2020 at 02:45 PM..
The average rate for a helicopter is around $6K per hour...being that a medical helicopter would be necessary for evacs, rates should be closer to around $10K, and that would be on the extreme high end.
No, a helicopter isn't always necessary for medical evacs. You are remembering movies. Fixed wing medical transport costs less then a helo, but it still costs more than what you are imagining. It is still a private air charter and you're paying the cost to have that aircraft maintained, available on call, company and employee insurance, training, and liability, not to mention EMT time with necessary medical monitoring/care enroute.
Last edited by Parnassia; 02-02-2020 at 03:34 PM..
Most individual and group health care policies do cover air evacuations within the US when an extreme emergency arises. Most insurance companies will fight you on it as they usually have some wording for pre-authorization and just because that's what they normally do just for the heck of it. When people fight back and get the press or state regulators involved, the insurance companies usually end up covering it as an out-of-network service. However, if a person elects to have no insurance, have them take the bus!
Reportedly BCBS paid out $50 million in 2016 to cover members’ air transport within the US.
BCBS is increasingly adding qualified air transporters to its network of providers.
Do not assume this means all BCBS Plans in all states automatically include air transport.
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