Air Ambulance Charges Continue to Rise, Outpacing Medicare's Rates, Study Says

Air ambulance charges, long a thorn in the side of insurers and workers' compensation fee-schedule proponents, are out of line with other medical charges and are continuing to rise, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins University. Professors examined four years of Medicare data and found that, nationwide, air ambulance companies' median charge was four to 9.5 times higher than Medicare's designated rates for the services. And the median charge has increased about 60%, from $24,000 in 2012 to $39,000 in 2016, the study found. Titled “Air Ambulances With Sky-High Charg...