Air Ambulance Transport a success!!!!!

Emergency Services

Junior Member
United Air Ambulance is pleased to announce that we were able to perform our first medevac on 6-13-16 from Puerto Penasco. Monday afternoon we flew a patient exhibiting signs and symptoms of a stroke with a lear 35 to Phoenix ,Arizona. Rocky Point doesn't have any accredited stroke centers or Level One Trauma centers within the town.

By flying our patient we were able to bypass a border crossing, transfers and a bumpy ride by ground ambulance. The flight time is approximately 35 minutes to Sky Harbor , but most importantly we put an advanced critical care team at the patients bedside quickly . We had a great outcome and got our patient into Barrows Neurological for treatment.

If you have a life threatening emergency we are there to help, we take all major insurance plans.

Please call 480 297 2170
 

Landshark

Well Known Member
I wonder how you would get this type of service covered by your health insurance policy? I can't imagine the cost of Medevac out of Mexico on a Lear 35 complete with an advanced critical care team. What if your insurance determined it was not necessary after diagnosing the patients condition? What if it was only a sun stroke for example and not considered life threatening? I assume you would be stuck paying the bill. Sounds like a great service and don't want to take this thread in a negative direction, just thinking about what if...
 

Jungle Jim

Well Known Member
The air ambulance from Yuma to Phoenix via helo starts out at $16,000.00. I'd guess the Lear would be around $35,000.00 at a bare minimum.

JJ
 

dirtsurfer

Well Known Member
Forum Supporter
Everyone should read their med insurance policies regarding air transport. Most policies have a stated limit that is usually far below what the transportation will cost you. For instance: my wife was helicoptered out of Zion once, the limit on our Blue Cross plan was $6500, the charge from the med-evac team was $19K. Just a short hop from a car accident to a local hospital will very often present charges that far exceed what the stated limits in a medical insurance policy will pay.
That said, there are supplemental policies available to help cover this service.
 

Landshark

Well Known Member
Your policy will also list "in network" air transport providers. If you use a provider that is not in network the insurance companies pay very little.
 

Emergency Services

Junior Member
Hope to never need you but as persons 'of a certain age' we are very glad you are there!!!
In regards to that comment, Medicare will not pay international transports. I highly advise all members of the Boomer group and up to buy full secondary medicare plans. Not the supplementals but secondary, the are worth their weight in gold for travelers. We fly patients in Costa Rica and Peru and utilize those to make sure no one gets saddled with an Air Ambulance bill.

The secondary policies will all cover clinical medical costs too, having that protection will help you sleep easy. Our billboard will be going up in front of Los Conchas soon
 

Emergency Services

Junior Member
Your policy will also list "in network" air transport providers. If you use a provider that is not in network the insurance companies pay very little.
We have the strongest air ambulance billing company in the USA, the in network payment to a provider for emergency flights is not legal. We have never once gone after a patient or family for a balance bill. We get 90% of billed charges paid due to our knowledge of health insurance laws.

Rest assured we advocate for the patient!
 

Emergency Services

Junior Member
I wonder how you would get this type of service covered by your health insurance policy? I can't imagine the cost of Medevac out of Mexico on a Lear 35 complete with an advanced critical care team. What if your insurance determined it was not necessary after diagnosing the patients condition? What if it was only a sun stroke for example and not considered life threatening? I assume you would be stuck paying the bill. Sounds like a great service and don't want to take this thread in a negative direction, just thinking about what if...
We have a strongest appeal team comprised of nurses, medics and legal specialists. Flying from a small Mexican clinic to Barrows for instance is an upgrade in care. We meet medical necessity on geographic and the physical conditions of the patient. We are not going to arbitrarily fly non emergency cases to the USA.

We successfully fly emergency cases from resort areas such as Cancun , Cozumel and Cabo often at no cost to the family. We assess and triage each case to determine medical necessity prior to flight. Insurance is notorious for leading patients down the rabbit hole of lowpay or no pay on claims. We don't lose, thats why we can fly international flights and we take the financial risks.

I must reiterate we have never gone after a single patient! This company was founded by a Firefighter and it always been the goal to help other in need.
 

Emergency Services

Junior Member
Everyone should read their med insurance policies regarding air transport. Most policies have a stated limit that is usually far below what the transportation will cost you. For instance: my wife was helicoptered out of Zion once, the limit on our Blue Cross plan was $6500, the charge from the med-evac team was $19K. Just a short hop from a car accident to a local hospital will very often present charges that far exceed what the stated limits in a medical insurance policy will pay.
That said, there are supplemental policies available to help cover this service.
So when we do our preflight assessment we gather documentation from our providers in town. The insurance card is sent to our team and we ask roughly 40 questions pertaining to the policy. All health insurance has emergency coverage for air transport now as mandated by recent federal changes. We do this assessment quickly to develop an action/ extraction plan for your loved one. In your case the Helicopter company didn't do its due diligence to fight for payment. Im familiar with the Utah providers and needless to say they aren't the best at the billing, and frequently push the bill back on the family.
 

Emergency Services

Junior Member
I really value the questions and concerns listed in these threads. No one thinks about rescue till its happening to you or your loved one. Latin America plays by different rules and we know how to work with the culture. Our staff is diverse and bi-lingual so we know how work the system.

We have Clinica Naval taking signed on for medical billing now, so you can see Dr. Soto and pay your co pay just like home. Time to get away form the cash pay extortion that happens in many Mexican clinics, not all Americans are made of money.
 

Jungle Jim

Well Known Member
Sounds to me like: PURO ACEITE DE CULEBRA!

Why is this pitchman being allowed on the site? His place is in the Rocky Point Times along with all of the other lying shysters.

JJ
 

Jungle Jim

Well Known Member
And ES or whoever you are, just what is the intent of your inference to "the Boomer group".....old, well off, frail, stupid, gullible or what?

We all know that there is only one thing to do when one of us Americans gets injured or sick in Mexico.....Get out ASAP!

JJ
 

Emergency Services

Junior Member
And ES or whoever you are, just what is the intent of your inference to "the Boomer group".....old, well off, frail, stupid, gullible or what?

We all know that there is only one thing to do when one of us Americans gets injured or sick in Mexico.....Get out ASAP!

JJ
Dear Jungle Jim

I would be more than happy to clarify any doubts you may have , my number is listed above.
Please feel free to call me

Mike
 

dirtsurfer

Well Known Member
Forum Supporter
Your policy will also list "in network" air transport providers. If you use a provider that is not in network the insurance companies pay very little.
Yes but when you are in a medical emergency and the meds call a helicopter [ are you going to refuse transport and wait another 45 minutes for an in network provider?] you really have no say and are stuck with a very often onerous, hard to explain and usually out of network bill. One more thing, the air transport and ground-ambulance companies in my experience have not been very nice to deal with in terms of their demands to be paid.
 

Jungle Jim

Well Known Member
No different than a swarm of filthy blue-black Moscas homing in on a steaming pile of Caca Fresca..........

Typical scenario, at least here in Yuma...............

Wife is crossing an intersection in her F-150 4x4 Crew Cab with upgraded suspension and big tires, with a 100% witnessed green light. The blue haired little old lady from Pasadena makes a hard left from the opposite direction thru the intersection in her sweet little new rice burner. F-150 runs right over her hood and knocks out her windshield. Wife calls me, I get there in about five minutes, no cops or emergency vehicles have arrived. Wife is out of the truck standing at the curb with ten or so eyewitnesses. I fire up her F-150 and pull it off the rice burner and over to the curb. Two full-sized hook and ladder rigs come blazing in along with five smaller fire vehicles, two Yuma ambulances arrive along with two Rural Metro ambulances. At least ten Yuma Police cruisers show up along with three Yuma County Sheriff cruisers, and two TV news crews!

The ambulance crews almost drag my wife off the sidewalk onto a gurney until I intervene. Cops get involved and try to calm me down claiming she might be injured and not know it. I tell em BS and have her get into my truck and sit it out. After more than an hour of the required BS, paper work, endless questions and the EMT guys still pestering my wife, we drive off with no damage what-so-ever on the F-150. Within the week we get a bill from the City of Yuma Fire Rescue for ambulance services for the tune of $11,000.00 and another from Rural Metro ambulance services for $12,000.00. The jerks never even touched her!

The bump that the F-150 took was not much different that when we do our weekend rock crawling, and of course the air bags didn't even deploy! Sadly, the rice burner did not do so well and the little blue hair was whisked away with the full regalia of happy emergency service personnel.

There used to be a joke about ambulance chasers, a little different now, the ambulance is chasing you is more like it.

I never did pay them a cent and still get feeble attempts from some off-the-wall collection agency based in Bangladesh demanding payment for the medical services that were "provided to us" on that day.

Ever notice that you hardly ever see one of those flying blue-black excrement eaters until the pile is on the ground? They have a nose for fresh poop and death that is 100% more sensitive than the blood seeking sharks in the ocean.

Kinda like when someone calls 911 now days, isn't it?

Oh well...........

JJ
 

dirtsurfer

Well Known Member
Forum Supporter
I had a very similar experience with a young son who crashed on his dirt bike at an MX track. The ambulance crew pounced on my son, wrapped him in a body board an insisted on hauling him to the hospital. I resisted but they played on my emotions by saying "he might be hurt, how would you feel if you didn't take care of him", I relented and off we went to the hospital. By the time we got the ER my son was asking to ride again. My bill was atrocious and there was no recourse. The insurance paid about 40% of the entire billing. I felt completely taken.
 

Jungle Jim

Well Known Member
Hey Dirt................

I'll bet there are hundreds who look at this site that know of or have had similar experiences. Anything related to "emergency services" these days can almost always be boiled down to: PURE RIPOFF.

I'll give you another example, rather ugly, but true.

A friend of ours here in Yuma was down on the beach South of El Golfo de Santa Clara camping with a big friends and family group during the Easter holiday. They had their buggies, quads, trucks and so on, as did several thousand others that were there for the same reason. Their young daughter was piddlin' along on a kiddie quad right in front of their camp when a high speed monster buggy comes rippin' through, hits the kid head-on and she is instantly killed on the spot.

The family knowing better to not have the Mexican law enforcement or Cruz Roja involved, wrapped the dead child up in fresh clothes, put her in a child seat and hauled ass back to Yuma. They crossed the border at San Luis without incident and went straight to our local Yuma Regional Hospital ER with their dead child. The parents were arrested within minutes at the hospital by Yuma PD for not informing the various arms of law enforcement that they passed through on the way from Mexico to Yuma. According to the father, the cops even insinuated that they might be held and charged with MURDER!

To kinda keep it simple here.......you just can't win for loosin' anymore.

JJ
 

TICO-T

Well Known Member
United Air Ambulance is pleased to announce that we were able to perform our first medevac on 6-13-16 from Puerto Penasco. Monday afternoon we flew a patient exhibiting signs and symptoms of a stroke with a lear 35 to Phoenix ,Arizona. Rocky Point doesn't have any accredited stroke centers or Level One Trauma centers within the town.

By flying our patient we were able to bypass a border crossing, transfers and a bumpy ride by ground ambulance. The flight time is approximately 35 minutes to Sky Harbor , but most importantly we put an advanced critical care team at the patients bedside quickly . We had a great outcome and got our patient into Barrows Neurological for treatment.

If you have a life threatening emergency we are there to help, we take all major insurance plans.

Please call 480 297 2170
Mike,

I spoke with nurse Wendy yesterday. I asked for the price of the jet to Sky Harbor and ambulance to hospital. She did not know and said someone would call me within 24 hours. Nobody called. You need to give the price of your product. Thank you.
 
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