— from John Geyman, M.D. —
The recent denials of many medevac flights by Kaiser Permanente, followed by its withdrawal as the only option for health insurance in San Juan County starting in 2020, poses a serious crisis to all residents of the San Juan islands that is not yet resolved. Repeated requests by Dr. Michael Sullivan, San Juan County EMS Medical Program Director, to meet with his physician counterpart at Kaiser have been unsuccessful in clarifying the reasons and process for these denials. It appears that this is just one more example of a for-profit insurer trying to rein in costs on the backs of patients at their most vulnerable time—a medical or surgical emergency requiring immediate air transport to the mainland for specialized care.
We are told that another insurer, LifeWise, may fill the void left by Kaiser’s departure in 2020. They are now being vetted for their coverage and clinical review practices by the head of the state Office of Insurance Commissioner, Michael Kreidler, in an effort to avoid future problems of this kind.
The issues here are basic and important. Whatever insurer is involved, they must not deny any emergency medevac flights that have been called for by physicians and paramedics on the ground on any of our islands. Any delays can be fatal for patients so involved. In our rural islands, taking the ferry is not a safe option to get to the mainland for emergency care. The costs of medevac flights often reach $20,000 or more, so that some patients may elect to avoid the risk of receiving such high bills without assurance of coverage by their insurer, even to rejecting life-saving flights. Moreover, if residents believe that medevac denials will continue in the future, they may leave our islands altogether, posing a serious economic challenge to our island communities.
Despite these challenges, there is good news. We have two excellent medevac carriers, both very economical, safe, and highly experienced—Island Air for fixed wing transport and Airlift Northwest for helicopter transport. All of our County residents should have membership in both ($39 a year per household for Island Air and $79 a year for Airlift Northwest), either of which will try to help with appeals should a future insurer deny coverage of the full costs of a medevac flight. Their websites for applications are: www.islandairambulance and www.uwmedicine.org/airliftnw/aircar.
The San Juan County Board of Health is tracking this problem and trying to develop a coalition of parties protecting Islanders from the risks of denial of coverage of medevac services in our islands, where such services can be a matter of life or death. We can, and must get to a better time when we can all expect and receive insurance coverage of emergency medevac flights to the mainland for care.
The links to the air ambulance web sites don’t work, at least not for me. Safari can’t find the server for either one.
The links have been fixed. Thank you, Michael Riordan for pointing it out.
Your letter was VERY informative. Thank you. Do you happen to know what the coverage is for a member of KP Medicare advantage?
Kaiser? LifeWise? It doesn’t matter!
In either case, we are left with only one private-medical-insurance provider.
If there’s only one provider, there’s no competition for customers. The one provider has a monopoly, and can do whatever it wants to do.
When there’s competition for customers, the savvy business provides extra services in order to lure people over to it’s side of the street.
But in a monopoly? The provider calls the shots. That’s what Kaiser did. That’s probably what LifeWise will do.
Do you people still want single-provider health-care insurance, as our government wants you to?
I suggest that you would be foolish to say “Yes.”
Steve- I get it that a single provider is a complete fail when they are a for profit organization. They have no motivation to reduce costs or provide better service. Their goal is to maximize revenue.
When we are talking a single payer program provided by the government, motivations are significantly different. The goal is to provide services at a good value. Patient/tax payer-centric. In theory, it will be better, as the focus will be on value, not profit.
Sorry, Hilary, but I just don’t believe that.
No monopoly has ever properly serviced its customers, and that includes our federal government.
At least one of the reasons that our county is stuck with a single-provider monopoly is to be found within the provisions and restrictions written into “Obamacare.”
Before the advent of “Obamacare,” our county’s residents had a longer list of provider choices and a better selection of rates.