Air ambulances in the United States are operated by a variety of hospitals, local government agencies, and for-profit companies. Medical evacuations by air are also performed by the United States Armed Forces (for example in combat areas, training accidents, and United States Coast Guard rescues) and United States National Guard (typically while responding to natural disasters).

Cost

In 2002, the federal government increased the reimbursement for medical flights for Medicare and Medicaid patients. This caused an increase in the number of for-profit ambulance services, which charge much higher rates than non-profit hospitals and expanded services available to people with private health insurance. With lower reimbursements, hospitals could still operate the service as a loss leader because severely injured patients would be incurring significant charges for medical treatment. NPR cited one 2008 case where two patients were transported from the same accident scene to the same hospital, where the hospital charged $1,700 and the private service charged $13,000.[1]

List of air ambulances

An Airlift Northwest Crew receives a patient transfer from the United States Coast Guard
A Mercy Jets crew loading a patient for transport in a Gulfstream Aerospace GIV air ambulance

See also

References

  1. "Why The Cost Of Air Ambulances Is Rising". NPR. Archived from the original on 2023-04-18.
  2. "Air Methods Now Carrying Blood In Flight". www.airmethods.com. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  3. "CAMTS Awards Accreditation to 16 Medical Transport Services | EMS World". www.emsworld.com. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  4. "All-Programs". www.camts.org. Archived from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  5. "About CareFlight Air and Mobile Services". Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  6. "Medical Services | Emergency Trauma | Vidant Health". www.vidanthealth.com. Retrieved 2017-11-11.
  7. Maryland State Police Aviation Command Archived 2008-10-20 at the Wayback Machine
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