Oklahoma City Air Ambulance and Medical Transport Injury Lawyers

Overbilling for air ambulances and ground transport

The life-saving services of an air ambulance service can be expensive, and health insurance policies often only pay a portion of the cost, which can run from $20,000 to half a million dollars or more, depending on the distance and the kind of medical support needed by the patient. Consumer Reports tells the story of a young girl who was burned in an accident in her backyard. The 40-mile trip to the hospital in an air ambulance to treat her burns cost the family $24,000, because it was out-of-network for their insurance company, which paid just $5,700 of the costs. The family was left with the remaining $18,300 payment.

This is not a one-off example, either. CNN reports “A 2017 federal investigation found that costs for an average air ambulance flight doubled between 2010 and 2014.” Why are the rates so high? Because air ambulance travel is not regulated under the Affordable Care Act. “Instead, they fall under the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act, which removed a state's ability to control airfares and routes long before air ambulances were common.”

The Air Ambulance Consumer Protection Act, which would protect consumers of air ambulance services has passed through Congress and is now awaiting President Trump's signature. The bill would allow states to regulate costs for air ambulance services and bring improved transparency to the air ambulance industry according to EMS1.com.

Medicare and Medicaid do pay a portion of an air ambulance ride which is medically necessary. Some health insurance providers cover a portion of the bill as do some travel insurance policies. Depending on where you live, you may have to get prior approval for a ride.

Cunningham & Mears has been successful in getting these bills reduced for our clients. We have worked with clients who never should have been air-lifted in the first place, because ground transport would have sufficed, as well as those who were in critical condition and needed to be transferred via air ambulance.

We have also worked with clients who were overbilled by ground transport services. Under normal circumstances, you are only billed for an ambulance ride – not for an ambulance showing up to the scene of an accident. However, an ambulance ride should be covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or most private policies if the transfer is deemed “medically necessary.” If an ambulance company attempts to claim that your trip was not medically necessary, or attempts to bill you for services it did not provide (or forced you to take), we can help with that, too.