Medicare reimbursement rates do not adequately cover the cost of air medical transport services, according to a report prepared for the Association of Air Medical Services.
AAMS commissioned Xcenda, a consulting firm and subsidiary of AmerisourceBergen, to conduct an independent analysis of emergent air medical transports based on the 2002 Medicare rate-setting methodology. Xcenda collected data by recruiting air ambulance providers billing Medicare in 2014, the most recent publicly-available billing information at the time of the study.
Xcenda researchers aggregated and analyzed cost data at a per-transport and per-base level, accounting for variances in program types, tax status, size and geographic location. They found respondents, which reflected 51 percent of all U.S. air medical bases and 46 percent of air medical services billed to Medicare, reported a median air ambulance transport cost of $10,199. However, based on 2015 reported costs data, the Medicare program and beneficiary payments covered only 59 percent of that cost. In addition, more than a third of respondents saw negative margins for emergent air medical services.
"A study such as this is long overdue," Rick Sherlock, AAMS President and CEO, said in a prepared statement. "The data provides a baseline for transport providers industrywide regardless of business model."