U.S. air ambulance advocacy group Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS) is asking Congress for $815.9 million to defray the anticipated industry losses over the next six months. AAMS formally made the request in a letter to Senate leaders Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Charles Schumer (D-New York) on Friday.
The organization said the funds were additional to the $363.5 million in relief it requested earlier this month. AAMS said the Covid-19 pandemic, in the aggregate, has resulted in a 40 percent reduction in flight volume to date. If the trend continues for the year, it would cost the industry more than $1.6 billion in lost revenue and threaten its long-time viability.
In addition to reduced flight activity, AAMS said its more than 300 members are receiving less compensation for the missions they do fly. It noted, “The patients that do require transport are increasingly uninsured or underinsured by government payers such as Medicare and Medicaid at significantly lower reimbursement rates. While the newly unemployed seek continuation of insurance coverage via COBRA provisions, those uninsured or underinsured patients combine to form a dramatically increasing percentage of the patients that we are transporting.”
Longer-term, AAMS is requesting a 65 percent boost in Medicare reimbursement rates for air ambulance transports “to help cover the loss of revenue associated with the uncompensated care due to rising numbers of individuals losing employer-based health coverage.”