New Helicopter for Life Flight?

[Lawreston]

http://www.penbaypilot.com/article/...-and-north-haven-help-make-lifeflight-s-third

(Heiress of L L Bean founder)

HR

 

[frfly172]

Nice story,always good when people give back to their community.

 

[Getonit]

Hopefully they can afford to staff and run it. The local airport has an EMS helicopter and the rumor is every time it takes off costs the insurance company $25,000. I had a friend who flew for one of these outfits in a bell ranger and he said it charges out at $14,000/hour. I guess as long is the attitude the insurance company is paying it doesn't matter.

 

[weilke]

Hopefully they can afford to staff and run it. The local airport has an EMS helicopter and the rumor is every time it takes off costs the insurance company $25,000. I had a friend who flew for one of these outfits in a bell ranger and he said it charges out at $14,000/hour. I guess as long is the attitude the insurance company is paying it doesn't matter.

That is a bit of the 'charges' vs 'cost' vs 'payment' game so common in medicine. The average medicare rate in 2012 was $21.55 per statute mile transported + a base, $900 iirc. There used to be a 50% add-on for rural locations but that got nixed to pay for obamacare. Medicare is about 30% of the HEMS market, private ins 40% and self pay 5% (the rest is ems taxes, charity, hospitals paying etc). So while the charges are easily in that 15k/hr range, the cost is significantly lower. According to Air Methods, the net revenue per flight (after discounts and writeoffs) is somewhere around 10k with a similar payor mix. The charges are so high because once in a while there is a health or car insurance company that just pays the full bill. If it is a medicare or medicaid patient, it gets written down to the medicare/medicaid allowable. With some insured patients, the insurance has a contracted rate, without such a rate, the patient often gets 'balance billed' and that is where the $12,000 bills for a chest pain admission come from.
This was an attractive business beteeen 2002-2012, a couple of private equity funds started buying out HEMS companies. The recent changes have put a bit of a damper on that.

 

[Velocity173]

Agusta 109 is a fine EMS platform. I flew the single engine version (119) earlier this month. 152 KIAS at max continuous. Fast, plenty of power and plenty of room. A lot of providers are stepping up to the plate now and upgrading to better aircraft.

 

[weilke]

Agusta 109 is a fine EMS platform. I flew the single engine version (119) earlier this month. 152 KIAS at max continuous. Fast, plenty of power and plenty of room. A lot of providers are stepping up to the plate now and upgrading to better aircraft.

The companies website mentions that one of their 119s has auxiliary fuel tanks to facilitate transfers from anywhere in the state to Boston. That is a long ride in a helicopter.

 

[Velocity173]

The companies website mentions that one of their 119s has auxiliary fuel tanks to facilitate transfers from anywhere in the state to Boston. That is a long ride in a helicopter.

Yeah but with the speed of the AW119, you start to bridge the gap between what an EMS King Air can do and a helicopter. I'd be willing to bet with a lesser response time of the 119, in some intrastate situations they'd beat a King Air.

 

[weilke]

Yeah but with the speed of the AW119, you start to bridge the gap between what an EMS King Air can do and a helicopter. I'd be willing to bet with a lesser response time of the 119, in some intrastate situations they'd beat a King Air.

With the ability to pick up and drop off right at the respective hospitals, it may well come out ahead for most of their trips.

 

[Velocity173]

With the ability to pick up and drop off right at the respective hospitals, it may well come out ahead for most of their trips.

True. Not having to land at an airport and load up / off load to a ground ambulance saves a bunch of time.