PSA about helicopter insurance....

[SabreKiller]

How do you find out which air transport company works in your area. Not opposed to paying the extra to be covered. Just don't want to be paying for something that I won't get if I need it.

Call your local Fire Department/EMS or the hospital. They should know.

[Txhuntr2]

I’d be happy to tell you...PM me

Sent

[adam_p]

My wife was taken by Life Flight from Memorial Hermann in Humble to the Memorial Hermann in the medical center in 2014, 27 years old. We never anticipated needing this level of coverage at our age. Her flight was 8 minutes and roughly 20 miles by air. The bill was $21k and we had no idea that there was a separate policy for this. There is also a separate policy, that we didn't have, for emergency ground transportation. I can tell you that it was a nightmare to get this all resolved and we ended up having to get letters from all the doctors that were involved in her treatment. The insurance basically told us that the lifeflight was not needed so they had zero obligation to pay any of it. The doctor that was working for the insurance company reviewing our case was a OBGYN, my wife had a blood clot in the front of her brain and somehow they felt an OBGYN was competent to review this.

Get the policy and you wont have to deal with 1-1/2 years of headache arguing with insurance reps.

Clearly your wife needed to be flown, however you can't necessarily blame the insurance companies for scrutinizing some of these claims. A guy my dad went to school with was having leg pain. He drove himself from his home in Denton to a care now clinic in 10-15 miles away. The care now clinic discovered a blood clot in his leg. They insisted on flying him to the hospital which is back where he lives in Denton. Helo probably not necessary there.

Then you have this from a snakebite victim
"I said I don't want to take a helicopter ride," Sparks protested as his hand and wrist were beginning to swell. "I said it's too expensive."

He says they didn't offer a ground ambulance and wouldn't take him up on his next offer, allowing his son Breit to drive him the 50 miles in their own car.

"I remember the doctors and the nurses all telling him that he didn't have a choice," Breit Sparks said.

"I just didn't feel like I had any rights," Hugh Sparks said.

They careflighted a kid here several years back for ripping a toe most of the way off in football practice. Not an exaggeration, not a joke. they really careflighted him for that.

The helo insurance sure seems like something to look into if it is that reasonable.

[Landrover]

Good thread, really needs to be considered by all of us! I purchase insurance with Global Rescue everytime I take a trip (hunting or not) out of the country. I honestly don't know if I have it on my Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas insurance but I will check into that. Be clear, Global Rescue can be purchased for a week, month or year...........and YES, it works at your local hunting spot if needed. These guys are well known with mountain climbers and hunters but cover all the gammits in between.

https://ss.globalrescue.com/partner/huntandtravel/

[jerp]

I have not read the fine print but a family membership with this outfit is only $65/year. You can go to a map of your area to see the coverage. It includes an air ambulance in Eastland so that would be close to my lease.

https://joinairmedcarenetwork.com/Membership/CreateAccount?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=rlsa&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=airevac&ads_cmpid=640267178&ads_adid=11231583948&ads_matchtype=b&ads_network=g&ads_creative=227258982396&utm_term=air%20ambulance%20insurance%20coverage&ads_targetid=kwd-301390113801&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&ttv=2&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz6TfsP7_1gIVzbbACh1qLwuUEAAYBCAAEgITNvD_BwE

[BrandonA]

Good thread, really needs to be considered by all of us! I purchase insurance with Global Rescue everytime I take a trip (hunting or not) out of the country. I honestly don't know if I have it on my Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas insurance but I will check into that. Be clear, Global Rescue can be purchased for a week, month or year...........and YES, it works at your local hunting spot if needed. These guys are well known with mountain climbers and hunters but cover all the gammits in between.
https://ss.globalrescue.com/partner/huntandtravel/

Thanks for the info

[Tejas Wildlife]

Not BC/BS in Louisiana

Let me start by saying that I am in no way trying to start a SMART/argument.

I just got off the phone with my medical insurance company and was told that all emergency medical transport was covered 100% and that included air bus/ helicopter. So just curious why there would be a need for extra insurance if medical insurance covers it. Curious if those that have had these large bills didn't have insurance or inadequate insurance or my agent doesn't have a clue.

My wife had 16 broken ribs, 2 collapsed lungs, brain trauma, etc from a obviously BAD UTV accident 12-22-15. Air Medivac charge was $37,000 and insurance paid $7,000. Spent 13 months appealing it. Paying $30,000 off $100 / month. Get the coverage. We live 9 miles from our county hospital but her injuries required a Level 1 Trauma hospital.

Get the coverage. It is DIRT CHEAP compared to the alternative

[Wall_Hanger]

Let me start by saying that I am in no way trying to start a SMART/argument.

I just got off the phone with my medical insurance company and was told that all emergency medical transport was covered 100% and that included air bus/ helicopter. So just curious why there would be a need for extra insurance if medical insurance covers it. Curious if those that have had these large bills didn't have insurance or inadequate insurance or my agent doesn't have a clue.

That would be for "In Network" emergency transportation. So if you need to be transported from the hospital to a live in therapy facility, they will use an in network 3rd party provider for that and it would be "emergency transportation". My experience dealing with this for over a year was that there are no in network emergency transport companies for reactive transportation like a wreck or my wife's situation. There is too much opportunity for law suits if they were to contract with certain carriers and not others.....that is exactly what I was told by the life flight billing agency that is in San Antonio.

I have the Summary of Benefits from BCBS that shows 100% coverage for emergency transportation as well.....they paid $3k out of the entire bill and said that was all that they were allowed to pay. That was after they initially denied the claim all together stating that the air transport was not medically necessary. For what is worth, the insurance company that sold us the BCBS policy agreed with us, thought themselves that it would have been covered, paid for the mediation and started an audit team for all of our bills. We had over $1 million in total billing so there was a good bit to go through.

[Wall_Hanger]

Clearly your wife needed to be flown, however you can't necessarily blame the insurance companies for scrutinizing some of these claims. A guy my dad went to school with was having leg pain. He drove himself from his home in Denton to a care now clinic in 10-15 miles away. The care now clinic discovered a blood clot in his leg. They insisted on flying him to the hospital which is back where he lives in Denton. Helo probably not necessary there.

Then you have this from a snakebite victim
"I said I don't want to take a helicopter ride," Sparks protested as his hand and wrist were beginning to swell. "I said it's too expensive."

He says they didn't offer a ground ambulance and wouldn't take him up on his next offer, allowing his son Breit to drive him the 50 miles in their own car.

"I remember the doctors and the nurses all telling him that he didn't have a choice," Breit Sparks said.

"I just didn't feel like I had any rights," Hugh Sparks said.

They careflighted a kid here several years back for ripping a toe most of the way off in football practice. Not an exaggeration, not a joke. they really careflighted him for that.

The helo insurance sure seems like something to look into if it is that reasonable.

I agree that it needs to be audited 100%. But in our case, the head ER doc called my wife's neurologist (she had a stroke 2 weeks prior) and they made the decision together that she had to be flown. Then the auditing doctor for BCBS denied the claim as not being medically necessary....he was an OBGYN. All I am saying is that an OBGYN is in no way fit to remark on a very rare blood clot in someones brain; but they did and it cost me a year of fighting and $$$.

[RF76]

Here in South Texas Air Evac is the one that responds to every emergency, when my LE Agency request the service. As an EMT within my Agency, I have attended to a class taught by one of the Air Evac regional supervisors and they claimed to be one of the biggest companies in the U.S with the most equipped helicopters and experienced personnel.

[BTLowry]

I am not against paying for something but assumed my medical insurance would cover

I will be calling insurance next week to find out

[curtintex]

Madisonville to Bryan= $17,000+

[Outback77]

My mom has been air lifted / care fligted twice and never paid a cent. Guess it helps not caring about debt or credit???

[Acameron52]

ALWAYS get air insurance. I guess I’m a little different working in the FD and using PHI and Care Flight from time to time, but it’s something that you may never need but the one time you do it’s bad.

[TreyRo]

MX track to JPS cost me 18k.

I refused to let them put me in but they still did. Not like I could put up a fight. My injury’s were not life threatening.

I said I wanted parkland (I have family on staff) if they were making me fly but the bird went straight to JPS. (About 6 minutes difference in flight time after research).

I fought careflight for two years and finally settled.