Opinion: Placing more regulations on air medical services would be bad for patients
Medicare and Medicaid haven't evaluated what they pay for air medical transport in nearly 20 years. That needs to change.
On the night after Christmas 2013, as Whitney Corby was driving to the gym in Corning, N.Y., the University at Albany lacrosse player’s car and smashed into a tree. The crew who arrived at the scene knew they couldn’t treat Whitney and that she was running out of time. They called the closest air medical provider, Guthrie Air from Sayre, Pa., and drove Whitney to a nearby school football field where the helicopter could land with the critical care team. They flew her to the closest Level 2 trauma hospital, which was back in Pennsylvania, to treat her fractured skull, traumatic
