What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you dial 911? It’s always the wellness of your loved ones, right? Many families in Florida, these days, are being forced to think about the expenses surrounding medical flight services. The reason is simple: balance payment is turning families bankrupt. It, obviously, does not seem fair when one is expected to pay out huge medical flight bills when they already have adequate health insurance coverage. The consumer advocates are not happy about the situation. However, the big question remains unanswered: who is responsible for the payments?
Medical Flight Bills: Are Insurance Providers Washing their Hands off the Responsibility?
The consumer rights advocates in the state of Florida are of the opinion that balance billing, as a practice, must be banned. When a patient has already paid his insurance premium, the insurance provider is duty bound to pay for all services related to health, including medical flight services.
In most situations, the patients do not even have a say in whether or not they want to avail air ambulance services. The decision is, often, taken solely by the medical practitioners, depending on the patient’s health condition.
Are Insurance Companies Justified in their Argument?
Most insurance companies feel that the medical flight companies overprice their services. This is perhaps the reason why there is invariably a disagreement between the price charged by air ambulance companies and the amount approved by the insurance companies. What seems worrying, however, is the reluctance on the part of insurance companies to revise their reimbursement rates. One reason for this is perhaps their privilege to balance bill the consumers.
Looking at this trend, it is no surprise that consumer right advocates are not happy at all about balance billing. However, with moves like Federal Deregulation bill on the table currently, there seems to be a glimmer of hope for the consumers but not so much for the medical flight companies.
