$171,900 vs. $5,800
That was the difference in the transportation cost for a spinal cord injury patient who needed to be transferred from a tertiary care center in Dallas to a neurological rehab center in Houston.
The initial air ambulance transport request came from an out-of-network provider and would have cost $171,900. However, a same-day, peer-to-peer review between an Alacura emergency physician and the sending physician confirmed that the patient could, in fact, be transported by ground ambulance to their destination. Ground transport would actually be faster with greater patient comfort due to fewer patient transfers.
As a result, the air request was withdrawn, and the in-network ground ambulance successfully completed the transfer.
One sensible, medically informed decision saved more than $160,000 without compromising the patient’s care.
Unfortunately, decisions like these are rare in the Wild West landscape of medical transport.
A System in Need of a System
It’s common sense. Transporting a seriously ill or injured patient from one facility to another requires coordination and acute attention to detail. However, in its current state, the fragmented medical transportation system isn’t built that way.
Although every medical transport decision affects multiple parties—patients, doctors, hospitals, health plans, and medical transport providers—coordination and transparency among these groups are frequently lacking. Medical transport decisions are often driven by speed and availability rather than clinical need. Instead of being a natural extension of patient-focused care involving all stakeholders, medical transport sometimes devolves into an unnecessarily stressful and expensive experience.
Many air ambulance transports are unnecessary.
The Missing Link in Medical Transport
What’s been lacking in medical transportation is a single resource that aligns clinical concerns, logistics, cost awareness, and health plan guidelines.
Alacura was created to fill that void.
Our Rapid Transport Response platform connects hospitals, patients, health plans, and transporters through one convenient hub. With everyone on the same page, decisions can be guided by patient safety and clinical appropriateness first, while still maintaining a watchful eye on what makes the most financial and logistical sense.
The following article outlines the most common pain points in medical transport today, and how a modern, tech-driven solution is providing a much-needed remedy for all of them.
Pain Point #1: Clinically Inappropriate Transports
Too often, transport decisions have too little to do with medicine.
The administrative process to get a patient from point A to B is challenging and time-consuming, which often leads to speed and accessibility being at the forefront of most decisions.
The Solution:
Half of Alacura’s team are clinicians – ER and ICU nurses, as well as emergency physicians. They work in real time with sending physicians and hospital staff to assess each patient’s condition and determine the safest, most appropriate mode of transport.
At the same time, Alacura’s administrative team works to secure insurance benefit verifications and schedule transport from our vetted network. While patient safety always comes first, delivering a responsible, universally beneficial solution is always a top priority.
Pain Point #2: A Lack of Competition
Medical transport is dominated by a handful of providers. In fact, the top three air transport companies control more than 75 percent of the market, giving them almost complete autonomy to set prices as they choose. Those prices rarely work in favor of patients or health plans.
Approximately 85% of ground and 75% of air transports are out-of-network, resulting in higher prices for health plans and exorbitant costs for patients.
The Solution:
Alacura maintains its own network of credentialed medical transport partners, ensuring a dependable standard of care. By using vetted partners, Alacura keeps transports in-network, controls costs for patients and health plans, and delivers a consistent experience across the board.
Pain Point #3: Shock Billing
Seriously ill or injured patients and their families typically have little say in their mode of medical transport. From their vulnerable position, they simply go in whatever mode of transport ambulance is provided.
It is not unusual for families to be hit with unexpected, out-of-network bills, sometimes exceeding $100,000. These balance bills can be financially devastating and seriously undermine a patient’s trust in both their healthcare provider and health plan.
The Solution:
Alacura represents the patient’s best interests throughout their medical transportation process, essentially giving them a voice they’ve never had before. Every Alacura transport is coordinated with the sending provider to be a clinically appropriate mode of transport that’s also timely, in-network, and removes the risk of surprise bills.
We aim to treat medical transport like every other area of healthcare and give patients the chance to use their healthcare benefits. If proven, in-network options are available, why wouldn’t they always be the first choice?
– Ken Van Cara, CEO Alacura
Pain Point #4: More Administrative Work for Hospitals
Coordinating medical transports is a significant distraction from a hospital’s primary focus: patient care. Without an established system, hospital staff are forced to spend time juggling transportation providers and securing approvals, which slows patient throughput and diverts clinical focus.
The Solution:
Alacura’s Rapid Transport Response platform provides hospitals with a go-to resource for coordinating bedside-to-bedside transports. The result is less administrative work, faster patient throughput, and a smoother, more efficient payment process.
Pain Point #5: Compliance With the No Surprises Act
The No Surprises Act was designed to protect patients from exorbitant bills, but its Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process has become a source of inflated financial rewards for providers.
For medical transports, over 90% of air transport billing disputes are resolved through IDR, and providers win most of them, often at rates that are 10 times higher than Medicare benchmarks. This trickles down to increase healthcare costs for everyone.
As BCBS Association President and CEO Kim Keck expressed in a recent LinkedIn post, “IDR has been exploited—adding billions in unnecessary payments, driving up premiums for struggling families.”
The Solution
Alacura keeps transports in-network, helping health plans avoid costly IDR disputes. If Alacura can review and sign off on a transport plan ahead of time, it’s disqualified from IDR arbitration down the road, a significant perk considering the rewards being handed out by IDR.
Conclusion
Medical transportation is a critical part of patient care, yet it has long operated without any universal rules or structure. The result is a patchwork system with gaps that lead to added risk, work, and expense for patients, hospitals, and health plans.
Alacura brings order and clarity to this fragmented space. With a single-point-of-contact platform and a clinically led approach, every transport is safe, timely, and in-network. Instead of confusion and frustration, Alacura delivers efficiency, value, and peace of mind to every trip.
If your organization is dealing with one or more of the medical transport pain points listed above, Alacura has your solution. Learn more at https://alacura.com.