Judge Tosses Class Action Challenging Air Ambulance Rates as Pre-Empted by ADA

A federal trial court in Colorado has thrown out a class action against an air-ambulance provider by plaintiffs who challenged the allegedly exorbitant fees they were billed. U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson found that the class plaintiffs’ breach of contract claims against Air Methods Crop. were pre-empted by federal aviation law. He’s not the first to reach this conclusion. Courts in Florida, Kentucky, North Dakota, Florida and Wyoming have all ruled that the Airline Deregulation Act trumps state laws attempting to govern the rates that air ambulance companies can cha...