I have been with my current service for just over a year. We are an ALS Service, I had been with an BLS unit for about 3 years prior. Well a group of us got together from my old service and starting talking about ALS Airlift Transport. Somebody mentioned that the service I am currently with (the flight part of it) charges $3,000 for not transporting a patient. So I did a little digging and sure enough if they land and a patient isn't transported, they bill the patient $3,000. Does this seem correct to you? Do a lot of airlift services do this? Understand that where I am a medic, it can take 30 minutes to get to a call considering there is only one ambulance in the county, and only one crew, so if a call is 30 minutes out and the airlift beats us there and we can't cancel in time, should the patient be charged? Just wondering some thoughts...
Airlift Billing
- Thread starter medic1986
- Start date
Medic744
Forum Captain
- 271
- 5
- 0
I have had a mechanic tell me that just to get the crew to the bird and get it running without lift off is around $8000 but Im pretty sure they dont bill if they dont transport. The little boy that lives next door to my grandmother was transported and his family recieved a $12,000 bill. The part I hate is that for critical patients this is a neccesity when you work in rural areas, but most patients can't afford it.