When most people think about air ambulance, they think of a medical helicopter picking you up from an automobile trauma and speeding you to the nearest trauma center. The reality is that the vast majority of air ambulance flights today are hospital to hospital transfers often of stable patients—only around 7% of flights are site pickups related to trauma. Air ambulances, once owned for the most part by hospital systems and municipalities, and often operated at a loss, have become a big business. That’s because air ambulances have been consolidated by a few players controlling a majority of assets. They are incentivized to move everyone by air, while most studies show that ground is more appropriate for many patients. When a person is in the hospital and their doctor tells them that they need to be transferred to a different hospital, they often don’t question the means or the cost.
- When a hospital physician writes an order to transfer a patient, they generally are not specifying by air or by ground. Often that decision is left to the air ambulance provider.
- Because profits are so much higher on air transports, the air ambulance providers are incented to fly patients rather than transfer them by ground ambulance
- One strategy that air ambulance companies have used is to buy local ground ambulance companies and withhold ground services so that they can fly patients at greater profits
Air ambulance providers say they “take all insurance,” and that is often interpreted by people to mean that their insurance will cover the cost of transport. It often doesn’t. 77% of air ambulance transports are “out-of-network,” and this means that patients can be billed for whatever insurance doesn’t cover. This is called balance-billing and it has become a regular practice of the large air ambulance companies. A recent study shows that 40% of patients transported by air ambulance were exposed to balance billing and that the average balance bill was almost $20,000. Alacura was built to help patients get the transport they need without the risk of a large surprise bill. Alacura works with hospitals to ensure that ambulance transports are done safely, quickly, and efficiently, and with health plans, patients, and their families to ensure that patients know they have options and that they need not be transported unnecessarily by air. If patients do need to be transported by air, Alacura ensures that they fly with a safe, reliable, in-network provider.