US EMS: $15,400 lift-off fee!?

[500 Fan]

Here is a link to an article about the alleged costs of patient transportation in the U.S.A.

Air ambulance trip costs man $58,477 | CharlotteObserver.com & The Charlotte Observer Newspaper (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/09/23/2632972/air-ambulance-trip-costs-man-58477.html)

Are these kind of fees the standard across the EMS industry in the US?

500 Fan.

[mfriskel]

That is how companies in the US can afford the outrageous wages they pay pilots.

[alouette3]

mfriskel,
I certainly hope you were joking. Yes the wages are outrageous but not in the way, I think, you mean.
Lift off fees are charged to cater for the cost of the two 'dead legs'.The first to position for pick up and the third to RTB.The 'loaded mile' concept is a throw back from the ground ambulance wherein the patient is billed for the distance they were on board.Lift off fees are much lower than the loaded mile fees and varies from location to location, state to state, company to company and,of course,type of operation (Hospital based versus Community based).
While 58k is on the higher side, it is not unusual for transport costs to be artificially inflated. The reason for this is, the very poor reimbursement rate.Most operations expect a return of 35 to 40% on their billing. The reasons are plenty.Social programs don't pay as much and have lots of restrictions, a large proportion of individuals flown have no insurance,some do with no provision for helicopter transport,illegals,the genuinely poor etc,etc,etc.Hence the bills are inflated to net as much money as possible on the 3 or 4 transports, out of 10, that are fully paid up,no questions asked.Unfair? sure it is! Hence the urgent need to reform the healthcare system in this country.
The upside is that despite the abyssmal rate of reimbursement, the number of companies and helicopters is growing everyday here and, this was one industry that came through unscathed in the recession. So somebody somewhere is getting rich.It certainly is not the pilots, as mfriskel implies.
On the other hand, if medicine is socialized in this country,50% of EMS pilots would be out of a job.
Something to think about-------.
Alt3

[Gomer Pylot]

I don't think most companies charge a lift-off fee, but certainly some do. Here in the land of the Golden Rule (those who have the gold make the rules) companies are free to charge whatever fees and amounts they like, and the market is supposed to take care of the customers. Of course, the market favors the one with the most money, but we aren't supposed to know that. Personally, I have nothing to do with billing, but I do know that the company I fly for doesn't charge a liftoff fee, just a fee per loaded mile. If the local EMS and fire departments knew we charged liftoff fees, they wouldn't call us nearly as often, and perhaps never. We get lots of calls before EMS even gets to the patient, based on the initial phone call, and it's not at all unusual to be called to cancel the flight after we're in the air, when the patient is found to be not so seriously injured. They call us because it takes time for them to get to the patient, and time for us to fly there, and that could be lots of wasted time, because it could take us well over half an hour to get to the scene, after they've spent perhaps a quarter to half an hour getting there by ambulance. If they cancel us, we just return to base, and no one is charged anything. If we fly the patient, the charge is by the mile from the pickup point to the hospital, based on GPS distance. Unfortunately, not every company uses this method, through greed or ignorance or a different idea of how things should be done.

Alouette, I think your sarcasm meter needs to be sent in for recalibration for failure to detect.

[alouette3]

Gomer,
LOL! I think you maybe right.I certainly hope that mfriskel's comment was tongue-in-cheek.If so, my apologies to him and yes,my sarcasm meter is out for recalibration even as I write this.

Regarding lift off fee. My company charges a lift off fee.But,if we get cancelled along the way, we do not bill for it.It is another one of those costs that are swallowed by the company or paid for by insured customers(!) We only bill for lift off fee if we transport a patient.Our average cost of a transport is to the tune of 18K and, I am told, that is the lowest in our region.But that could be BS propoganda from our company business folks.In HEMS,on the ground or in the air, I believe nothing of what I hear and only half of what I see. Saves me a lot of heatburn that way.
Alt3.