||| FROM KIM KIMPLE for ORCAS ISLAND HEALTH CARE DISTRICT |||
When a patient needs rapid transport from the San Juan Islands, emergency service providers call for air medical transport from one of three providers – Island Air, Airlift Northwest, and Life Flight. The decision for which air transport provider to use depends on multiple factors including the patient’s medical priority, weather conditions, and aircraft availability.
In the past, residents who held memberships with Airlift Northwest were covered for medical transport services with Life Flight and vice versa under a reciprocity agreement. That option ended in 2020, and OI residents need to consider purchasing membership for air medical transport with all three companies.
Membership costs range from $39 to $69 per annual household membership, for a total of less than $200 each year. Without a membership, air medical transport can cost patients tens of thousands of dollars. For more information and to sign up for memberships, contact each membership provider (click logo above for each provider).
Thank you, Kim. This was news to me, and I would guess to a lot of other folks too.
Remember folks- they’ll only accept you as a member of you have health insurance that covers medical transport and your membership will cover costs not covered by insurance. Still worth doing, but it’s not as simple as it seems at first.
Would be good if our local EMS and healthcare providers tried to pressure these three providers to work together and offer a joint membership that covers all three.
I think a little more explanation and public information would be useful. I believe medical emergency flights are covered, provided there is insurance coverage and regardless of membership; so what is the benefit of membership? And, yes, why can’t there be a comprehensive “umbrella” membership, coordinated either by a consortium of the three providers or perhaps through the Health District?
I agree with Mr. Ellsmere: it is beyond absurd that we should have to pay 3 times over “just in case” one of the helicopters is busy elsewhere when it’s needed. Perhaps our publicly funded medical district can make themselves useful and get this sorted out?
Hello folks, I had asked this question of Lin And maybe if I restate part of my letter to her here, you may understand my confusion.
“Up until now I have maintained two annual subscriptions, one with Airlift Northwest ($60) and one with Island Air Ambulance ($39). I attended the online Orcas Island Fire and Rescue meeting a couple of months ago. In his report, Chief Williams mentioned a third company, Life Flight ($69), and suggested that everyone buy a membership for that company as well. Just how many memberships do I need? Do I need to check with my insurer for any reason? Is there an “official” OIFR stance on how many companies everyone should be enrolled with? Does the county do anything to ensure that islanders are aware of all the options? Social media should not be the answer. And what happens if the “flyoff roulette wheel” spins to an aircraft someone hasn’t renewed with? And what about island visitors who are not family?”
Is there any limit to the number of medevac outfits that can come to the islands, each demanding tribute from everyone here in case that’s the one you end up in?
Great info – thanks, Kim & Lin!
Does the patient get to choose which service they want called or does the fire department choose? The patients who have Medicare as their primary provider, even if they have a back up insurance, will not get coverage now because Medicare does not approve it. Thats what I have been finding out. So at least Air Lift Northwest told me that they would NOT cover us because our Insurance primary is Medicare , even tho we do have a secondary policy. We have a National Airlift membership but they specifically exclude Washington State, and Idaho.. Now what? Which company on the above list ? Has anyone found a “work around?”
Mr. MacMillan: From Medicare.gov
Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance) covers ground ambulance transportation when traveling in any other vehicle could endanger your health, and you need medically necessary services from a:
Hospital
Critical access hospital, or
Skilled nursing facility
Medicare may pay for emergency ambulance transportation in an airplane or helicopter if you need immediate and rapid transport that ground transportation can’t provide.
In some cases, Medicare may pay for limited, medically necessary, non-emergency ambulance transportation if you have a written order from your doctor stating that the transportation is medically necessary. For example, someone with End-Stage Renal Disease may need medically necessary ambulance transport to a kidney dialysis facility.
In our family, we have been airlifted off-island three times, and Medicare has paid each time. No guarantee, of course.
Kim, your post has obviously stirred up a lot of interest and questions. Somebody–whether it’s you, OIFR, the Health Care District or the individual providers–needs to step up and find some answers.