美国国家公共电台 NPR Air Ambulances Woo Rural Consumers With Memberships That May Leave Them Hanging（在线收听）

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The air ambulance industry's sky-high prices have been a focus of federal reports and congressional hearings in Washington, D.C. Over a thousand miles away in rural Kansas, reporter Sarah Jane Tribble examines the controversial way the industry markets its services.

SARAH JANE TRIBBLE, BYLINE: At the annual Good Ol' Days festival in Fort Scott, Kan., 7-year-old Kaidence Anderson and her family are sitting in the shade. A crowd has gathered at this town's historic national park to watch a helicopter land.

KAIDENCE ANDERSON: It's going to show us how it's going to help other people because we don't have the hospital anymore.

TRIBBLE: Mercy Hospital Fort Scott closed at the end of 2018. An emergency department has reopened, but the town's 7,800 residents still worry about not having all the services of a traditional hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: There it is.

(SOUNDBITE OF HELICOPTER WHIRRING)

TRIBBLE: As Kaidence and I talk, a medevac helicopter circles the sky.

(SOUNDBITE OF HELICOPTER WHIRRING)

TRIBBLE: Once it lands, Kaidence and her 4-year-old brother Connor are fully impressed.

CONNOR ANDERSON: Mommy, is it going to take off?

DAWN SWISHER-ANDERSON: Here in a little while.

CONNOR: Can we watch it take off?

SWISHER-ANDERSON: Did you like it?

KAIDENCE: I really like it.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Just a little more time to let it cool down.

KAIDENCE: It's big, too.

CONNOR: The rapeller (ph) thing is very huge.

TRIBBLE: Connor has severe asthma and is frequently hospitalized. Mom Dawn Swisher-Anderson says the family is here to see that there is help if they really need it.

SWISHER-ANDERSON: It's obviously scary with a young one when he's having breathing complications. I don't like to have to commute that far.

TRIBBLE: A recent federal report found that the median price charged for a medevac helicopter ride was $36,400, and often not covered by insurance. But here in Fort Scott, the families and others are learning about another option. Company representative Angela Warner is on hand.

ANGELA WARNER: Midwest AeroCare is a network membership program. So with Fort Scott losing their hospital, if somebody needed emergent care more than a ground ambulance, for example, having a helicopter be able to fly in could mean the difference in living or dying for some people.

SUSAN GLOSSIP: I agree.

SWISHER-ANDERSON: Susan Glossip is listening closely and eager to know if the helicopter responds to the area. Glossip asks about a membership. One annual membership in AirMedCare Network is $85, or less if you're 60 and older. If a helicopter in the network responds to your call for help, the company promises you pay nothing. Millions of mostly rural Americans have memberships, according to the network. But there's a catch, says Texas Representative Drew Springer.

DREW SPRINGER: I've had constituents who had bought subscriptions thinking that was the service that would cover them in their area only to find out when they needed it in an emergency that they're not the ones that were making that choice - that it is the 911 dispatch. And they were left with substantial bills upwards to $60,000.

TRIBBLE: In an emergency, you're not in control of who's called. Springer proposed a bill last year that would have forced Texas air ambulances to honor the memberships of other companies. Governor Greg Abbott vetoed it. Other states, though, have taken action. North Dakota banned the memberships. Jon Godfread is that state's insurance commissioner.

JON GODFREAD: It's another loophole that these air ambulance companies are trying to essentially exploit our consumers.

TRIBBLE: Godfread says people who already have health insurance should not also feel the need to buy a membership to avoid a surprise bill.

GODFREAD: It gives the air ambulance industry the option to say, listen; we're doing everything we can. We're offering these membership services. Aren't we doing a great thing? In the back end, there's nine different providers that have to have nine different memberships with nine different people.

TRIBBLE: Instead, customers have to buy multiple memberships if they hope to be protected. Godfread says Congress should take action.

GLOSSIP: There you go. Look over here, girls. Smile.

TRIBBLE: Back in Fort Scott, Susan Glossip is taking pictures of her granddaughters in front of the helicopter, and Midwest AeroCare's Angela Warner encourages the fun.

WARNER: All right, girls. That looks like a good helicopter crew right there, a pilot and a couple of nurses. Everybody smile and say helicopter.

GLOSSIP: Look over here, ladies.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: Helicopter.

TRIBBLE: Warner smiles warmly and asks permission to post the picture to the company's Facebook page. I'm Sarah Jane Tribble in Fort Scott, Kan.

SIMON: And Sarah is with our partner Kaiser Health News.

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