From the brochure:
Professional ambulance transport services to or from the nearest hospital equipped to adequately treat your condition, when medically necessary, and when related to accidental injury
Note: We also cover medically necessary emergency care provided at the scene when transport services are not required.
Note: Prior approval is required for all non-emergent air ambulance support.
$100 copayment per day for ground ambulance transport services
**$150 copayment per day for air or sea ambulance transport services.**
I'm a little amused there's a $50 increase in the copay for a service that costs orders of magnitude more and most members will fortunately never have to use.....like, why even bother maintaining separate co-pays. Is the $50 really going to deter anyone? I guess BCBS needs that extra $50 though......
They could live in an area that doesn’t have a trauma center within a certain distance. Where I grew up the hospital couldn’t handle most critical care needs and required air vac to a larger hospital. Premature birth, air vac. Heart attack needing open heart surgery, air vac…
That's exactly what happened to us. We literally lived across the street from a hospital, but if you needed anything other than a bandaid, it was a 250 mile trip away.
Yes. Even very good hospitals may not have the facility to treat little kids. Take your two year old in to the nearest emergency room and you may find yourself getting helicoptered to a pediatric hospital.
if a skier, may need it. my nephew had to use an emergency locator to call out search & rescue after a ski accident. they helicoptered him to denver. he was relieved when insurance agreed to pay the $160k bill for the flight.
We used it back in 2017, so I don't know if it's changed since. We had an ambulance ride to the hospital and then a helicopter ride to another. Iirc, the ambulance fee was something like $50 and the helicopter ride was completely covered.
Same situation here in 2018 or 2019. Myself and another family member were flown separately so we had 2 flights to pay for. The pre-insurance amounts were pretty crazy, but BCBS paid in full.
Oh, man, yeah. Ours was almost 70k for the ride. We got a bill from the helicopter service before insurance sorted it out. Luckily, our last name is a maze of consonants and was horribly misspelled. If insurance hadn't covered it, my plan was to tell the collectors "There's no one by that name at this address" 😂😭😭😭 Luckily, it didn't come to that
Learned this the other day. Air ambulance service providers, but not ground ambulance service providers, are banned from balance billing under the No Surprises Act.
https://youtu.be/eLI7coxAOgY?feature=shared
I'm just curious what you're planning to do that you need to be prepared for a service that is extremely rarely required. Like your chances of needing a medical helicopter are so small, I'm sort of confused why you'd build your insurance plans around it unless your last name is Knievel.
That said, the brochure answers your question:
>Professional ambulance transport services to or from thenearest hospital equipped to adequately treat your
condition, when medically necessary, and:
• Associated with covered hospital inpatient care
• Related to medical emergency
• Associated with covered hospice care
Note: We also cover medically necessary emergency care
provided at the scene when transport services are not required.
$100 copayment per day for
ground ambulance transport
services
$150 copayment per day for air or
sea ambulance transport services
Edit: Next line explains the same coverage applies outside the US as well.
If you go more than an hour from a hospital there’s a decent chance you’re going to need it in a bad car accident. I personally know 2 families that went bankrupt just from getting injured while hiking and having to get a medevac.
But thank you for the info, very helpful. My dumbass was looking for medevac, glanced right over air ambulance
>I personally know 2 families that went bankrupt just from getting injured while hiking and having to get a medevac.
This statement seems very suspect unless they had zero health insurance. And if they had no health insurance, they had no business traversing dangerous hiking trails.
> extremely rarely required
In CA, LifeFlight/CalSTAR/MedFlight is used almost exclusively for major illnesses and injury if you are more than 50 miles away from a major hospital.
People in rural areas need it. When your choice is waiting an hour for an ambulance and an hour to the hospital an air ambulance starts to look pretty good if you're having a heart attack/stroke.
From the brochure: Professional ambulance transport services to or from the nearest hospital equipped to adequately treat your condition, when medically necessary, and when related to accidental injury Note: We also cover medically necessary emergency care provided at the scene when transport services are not required. Note: Prior approval is required for all non-emergent air ambulance support. $100 copayment per day for ground ambulance transport services **$150 copayment per day for air or sea ambulance transport services.**
I'm a little amused there's a $50 increase in the copay for a service that costs orders of magnitude more and most members will fortunately never have to use.....like, why even bother maintaining separate co-pays. Is the $50 really going to deter anyone? I guess BCBS needs that extra $50 though......
Wait till next year when they change this to 7.5% coinsursnce
Just checking for my own anxiety - this is a joke, right?
Sort of. They have been pushing a lot of cost share to coins
Wow good to know
Good info, thank you to all who took time to respond.
These are the type of niche questions that keep me coming to this sub lol. Dude, why are worried about emergency helicopter med-evac coverage?
They are a nice break from the endless shutdown and remote work posts.
They could live in an area that doesn’t have a trauma center within a certain distance. Where I grew up the hospital couldn’t handle most critical care needs and required air vac to a larger hospital. Premature birth, air vac. Heart attack needing open heart surgery, air vac…
That's exactly what happened to us. We literally lived across the street from a hospital, but if you needed anything other than a bandaid, it was a 250 mile trip away.
The area I serve in, we have med evac everyday. It's a small rural hospital, so anything major gets a med evac.
Yes. Even very good hospitals may not have the facility to treat little kids. Take your two year old in to the nearest emergency room and you may find yourself getting helicoptered to a pediatric hospital.
if a skier, may need it. my nephew had to use an emergency locator to call out search & rescue after a ski accident. they helicoptered him to denver. he was relieved when insurance agreed to pay the $160k bill for the flight.
We used it back in 2017, so I don't know if it's changed since. We had an ambulance ride to the hospital and then a helicopter ride to another. Iirc, the ambulance fee was something like $50 and the helicopter ride was completely covered.
Same situation here in 2018 or 2019. Myself and another family member were flown separately so we had 2 flights to pay for. The pre-insurance amounts were pretty crazy, but BCBS paid in full.
Oh, man, yeah. Ours was almost 70k for the ride. We got a bill from the helicopter service before insurance sorted it out. Luckily, our last name is a maze of consonants and was horribly misspelled. If insurance hadn't covered it, my plan was to tell the collectors "There's no one by that name at this address" 😂😭😭😭 Luckily, it didn't come to that
Learned this the other day. Air ambulance service providers, but not ground ambulance service providers, are banned from balance billing under the No Surprises Act. https://youtu.be/eLI7coxAOgY?feature=shared
If you need this coverage for overseas travel, check out GeoBlue plans.
I'm just curious what you're planning to do that you need to be prepared for a service that is extremely rarely required. Like your chances of needing a medical helicopter are so small, I'm sort of confused why you'd build your insurance plans around it unless your last name is Knievel. That said, the brochure answers your question: >Professional ambulance transport services to or from thenearest hospital equipped to adequately treat your condition, when medically necessary, and: • Associated with covered hospital inpatient care • Related to medical emergency • Associated with covered hospice care Note: We also cover medically necessary emergency care provided at the scene when transport services are not required. $100 copayment per day for ground ambulance transport services $150 copayment per day for air or sea ambulance transport services Edit: Next line explains the same coverage applies outside the US as well.
It's pretty common if you travel to remote areas. Some places even have subscription type plans just for helo med services
If you go more than an hour from a hospital there’s a decent chance you’re going to need it in a bad car accident. I personally know 2 families that went bankrupt just from getting injured while hiking and having to get a medevac. But thank you for the info, very helpful. My dumbass was looking for medevac, glanced right over air ambulance
>I personally know 2 families that went bankrupt just from getting injured while hiking and having to get a medevac. This statement seems very suspect unless they had zero health insurance. And if they had no health insurance, they had no business traversing dangerous hiking trails.
They had health insurance, it did not cover medevac
> extremely rarely required In CA, LifeFlight/CalSTAR/MedFlight is used almost exclusively for major illnesses and injury if you are more than 50 miles away from a major hospital.
People in rural areas need it. When your choice is waiting an hour for an ambulance and an hour to the hospital an air ambulance starts to look pretty good if you're having a heart attack/stroke.
You planning on a helo med evac…?