Consumer Advocacy
What you need to know
Medical Evacuation
  • An air ambulance ride can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
  • Most medical air transports are operated by private companies.

  • Medical air transportation can be used domestically or abroad.

  • There are resources available for low-income individuals.

Our Approach

How we analyzed the best Air Medical Transport Services

Plan Details
Medical air transportation is expensive and a vital emergency service. Why choose a company that won't provide the most comprehensive services when you truly need them?
Customer Support
Medical air transportation requires a monumental coordination effort between the service provider and hospitals. We chose companies with trained, 24/7 support staff, so you can get home no matter when or where you are.
Costs
Air ambulance services are expensive, but plenty of companies offer affordable, comprehensive options. We chose companies with the best value so you still have enough cash for other emergencies.
147 People found this helpful.
We receive compensation from these partners, which impacts the order they appear on the page. That said, the analyses and opinions on our site are our own and we believe in editorial integrity.

Our Top Picks: Medical Evacuation Reviews

Air medical transportation services are an integral part of our healthcare system. If you ever find yourself in a situation where a traditional ground ambulance cannot reach you, a medical air transport is sent out to accomplish the task.

However, the vast majority of air ambulance services are handled by private companies, and aren’t covered by traditional health insurance. For this reason and because air ambulance services are prohibitively expensive, many companies offer memberships that fully cover the cost of the ride, should you ever need to use them. Prior to signing up with a private company, however, you can ask your health insurance provider whether they offer the coverage and if it’s possible to add it to your policy if you do not already have it.

When reviewing companies that provide these services, we chose to evaluate them based on their plan details, their customer support team, and their cost. Since these are essential services, many companies tend to offer similar packages. We made sure to only include companies that offer everything you need to receive proper care at affordable rates, and with well-equipped customer support teams that help coordinate your trip from the scene of the accident (or hospital you are currently stationed at) to the hospital of your choice.

 

Medjet Assist review

Best for frequent international travelers

Medjet is our top choice for travelers who need air-medical transportation services because of its reputation and extensive partnerships with air carriers and air ambulance providers. The company has no pre-existing condition exclusions and if a member is transported there are no claim forms or out-of-pocket expenses.  Unlike many air medical transportation companies in the U.S., Medjet doesn’t possess its own aircraft fleet. Instead, the company partners with a wide network of private air ambulance providers, which provides the flexibility to rapidly respond to global requests. 

Screenshot MedJetAssist.com, April 2020

Program members are eligible for transport to their home country and city hospital of choice if they are hospitalized 150+ miles from their home and require continued hospitalization.  It works for domestic as well as international travel.

Medjet was the first program of its kind in the U.S. and was the first to begin transporting COVID-19 patients from around the world to hospitals at home. 

Given its focus on long-distance travel, Medjet offers a number of different membership tiers. Aside from their standard annual plan that covers international and domestic travel, they also offer short-term options from 8 to 30 days; expatriate memberships for extended trips abroad, student memberships, for those studying abroad; and domestic-only membership for those traveling inside the U.S., among others.

Regardless of the plan, transport does not depend on medical necessity, and you will always be able to choose which home hospital you will be transported to, access member services at all times, and even avail yourself of translation services. If you choose to spring for the more expensive membership, MedjetHorizon, the company includes security and crisis response and evacuation for non-medical emergencies such as natural disasters, violent crime, pandemics, or other safety scenarios.

Medjet memberships are comparatively cheap. An individual annual membership costs $295, while a family membership—which includes coverage for a spouse and up to 5 children—costs $399, though there are discounts for purchasing several years of coverage. If you’re considering shorter terms, be advised that the cost-per-day is considerably higher than the annual plans. For reference, 8-day coverage for a single traveler costs $99, while the 30-day option totals $250.

 

SkyMed review

Best for U.S. Residents Living Abroad

SkyMed is a medical air transportation company that aims to provide emergency transportation services to U.S. residents both travelling or living abroad. They have a wide-reaching service network that is able to reach their members anywhere in the U.S. or over 30 different countries, including Mexico, Canada and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Screenshot SkyMed.com, April 2020

SkyMed boasts a fleet that includes both fixed-wing and rotor wing craft, allowing them to respond to all manner of emergencies. Additionally, if you were travelling via RV or just taking a cross-country drive across the States, SkyMed also makes sure that your vehicle, belongings, and loved ones are transported with you.

Where SkyMed stands out from many of their competitors is in its focus on North American travel. Aside from the standard international coverage options for repatriation around the world, SkyMed also offers plans specifically designed for ex-pats in Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean. Most other companies only provide blanket coverage for short-term or long-term travel, but not specifically for residence outside of the States. Additionally, under the expatriate plans, you can be transported to the hospital of your choice in any of the aforementioned regions.

AirMedCare Network review

Best for domestic coverage

Because they provide an affordable alternative to a service that isn’t covered by most traditional medical insurance plans, we recommend AirMedCare Network for U.S. residents who live in rural areas without easy access to a hospital, and to outdoorsy types who might unexpectedly find themselves in need of an emergency evacuation from a secluded nature area.

Screenshot AirMedCareNetwork.com, April 2020

Strictly speaking, the AirMedCare Network is not a singular medical air transportation provider, but rather a network composed of four different regional providers coming together in an attempt to streamline the interstate medical air transportation process.

Most medical air transportation providers tend to focus on international and long-distance services because helicopter ambulances tend to be handled at the state level due to numerous differences in state and federal regulations regarding these services. AirMedCare Network offers an alternative by bringing together four regional carriers across 38 states to provide access to air ambulance services to traditionally underserved communities in the continental U.S.

Because the network features a handful of different providers, they are able to respond to emergencies requiring both helicopter and plane transportation, something that is fairly rare in the industry. Their focus on domestic emergencies also allows them to offer lower cost memberships in comparison to international providers, with their standard annual membership costing $85 for anyone up to age 60 and a senior option at $65 annually. Additionally, they offer discounts for longer term memberships.

Unlike other medical air transportation service providers, AirMedCare network is dedicated exclusively to U.S.-based emergencies and as such, you should not expect any of the additional services that are often offered by other providers, such as repatriation. As a sort of trade-off, instead of said services, AirMedCare network also offers ground ambulance transport across their service area, which you can purchase as an add-on. 

Our Research

More insight into our methodology

At the outset of our research, we thought the process would be relatively straightforward. After all, air ambulances are just one small piece of the admittedly labyrinthine healthcare puzzle, which would allow us to narrow down our research efforts. However, once we looked into the topic, it turns out that the medical air transportation industry is less transparent than one would expect.

While we didn’t find  any juicy scandals or outrageous mistreatment of consumers in the industry, we did find that there is a surprising lack of information and statistics on the matter as a result of federal deregulation. Instead of a national network of air ambulances able to respond to emergencies across state lines, there are several private companies dedicated to covering the gaps in the U.S.’s air ambulance operations, accountable mostly only to themselves.

To that effect, we focused our efforts on evaluating companies based on the voluntary steps they took to ensure the highest level of compliance with medical standards of treatment. Another issue stemming from the federal deregulation, is that these companies can set their own prices—and without a membership, you could be liable for amounts up to tens of thousands of dollars, if the company isn’t partnered with your medical insurer. This essentially makes memberships indispensable to some, and as such, we also kept an eye out for the most affordable options, to make sure you don't have to worry about being able to afford life-saving transportation services after you’ve already received them.


Plan Details

Medical air transportation: you have an emergency, the air ambulance gets called, and you’re on your way to a hospital, right? True, but there are more details to pay attention to. If you choose to sign up with an air ambulance service provider, you also want to make sure that they have all types of aircraft in their fleet, so you’re covered in any type of emergency. You also want to make sure that their plan details don’t include fine print that will cause you to pay more than you have to. 


Customer Support

Whenever you need to make use of air ambulance services, a team of people immediately goes to work to make sure that your trip is properly coordinated with the appropriate authorities and hospitals. We want to make sure that whoever you consider has a 24/7 customer support team that will be able to interpret other languages for you, if necessary, as well as coordinate with the FAA, the hospital of your choice, and your insurer. 

 


Costs

Medical air transportation is incredibly expensive, with price tags often reaching the tens of thousands of dollars. As such, many companies offer yearly memberships that cover the full cost of your ride, helping you avoid crippling bills. We picked the companies with the most comprehensive, yet affordable, plans to make sure you still have enough cash left over for your rainy day fund.

 

Helpful information about Medical Evacuation

Picture it: you've been planning a hiking trip in the Utah desert for months now. You made sure to pack all the essentials and you brought along a hiking buddy, because you know better than to go to remote locations by yourself. Now, hours into your hike, you come across a gap between rocks that you have to jump across. Your buddy clears the gap effortlessly, but when it's your turn, the unthinkable happens: you slip and fall down the small canyon, breaking a few bones in the process.

The situation looks dire, but luckily, your cell phone service registers the barest of signal bars. Your buddy phones emergency services to request an ambulance, but they say it will take at least two hours to reach you. As you and your friend pass the time waiting in the baking sun, you start hearing what sounds like helicopter blades in the distance. You look up to the light and see your ambulance touching down from the skies to get you to safety.

While that was a hypothetical scenario, the truth is that thousands of people are in need of search and rescue (SAR) operations every year in the U.S. A 2017 report by the National Park Service (NPS) shows that at least 4,194 SAR operations were carried out in that year alone, with many others presumably unreported. Some—like the woman who fell down a ravine while snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park—required medical air transportation to provide them the necessary treatment while en route to the hospital. However, while air medical transports are in many ways functionally similar to conventional ground ambulances, they have some notable differences.

What Are Medical Air Transports?

Air medical transports are meant to reach you where a more traditional ground ambulance cannot. If you suffer a traumatic injury while hiking, rock climbing, or any similar activity in locations that would prevent ground transports from reaching you in a timely fashion, an air ambulance will likely be deployed. Whether an injury results  from a construction accident, a traffic collision, or, who knows,a cartoonish baby grand piano being hoisted up the sides of a building suddenly falling on someone—it can all require the use of an air ambulance, if the injury is severe enough.

However, medical air transports are not exclusively used for extreme outdoor activity injuries or unexpected life-threatening injuries. They can also be used so that anyone who lives too far away from the nearest hospital, such as in underserved rural communities—which have seen over 83 hospital closures since 2010—can receive the urgent care they need in a timely fashion. They also help transport patients who are travelling abroad and cannot afford or are not allowed to receive treatment in the countries they are travelling to.

Not All Ambulances Are The Same

Despite the fact that medical air transports are essentially air ambulances, their relationship with your medical insurance provider is not quite as straightforward. Most of these transports are operated by private companies, which form agreements with different insurance providers, meaning that no single insurance provider will consider all medical air transport services to be in-network.

As many with private health insurance have found out at some point, out-of-network services end up being far more expensive than those covered by your provider. While many private health insurance providers include ground ambulance coverage in some form or another, air ambulance services are not included with every type of plan. Your first step when considering air ambulance coverage is to check with your insurance provider to see if your plan includes medical air transportation, and whether you can add it to your plan if you don’t already have it. 

However, even if it is included, you still have to read the fine print and understand the terms of service, since air ambulance services are only covered when they’ve been designated as “medically necessary,” the definition of which may vary from insurer to insurer. This can be further complicated by the fact that you seldom have a choice in which medical air transportation company is called to pick you up in an emergency, which could mean using an out-of-network provider, and result in astronomical bills.

The problem with balance billing

A report by the Government Accountability Office estimates that as of 2014, the average cost of an air ambulance ride was $30,000, with some companies charging an average of $49,800 in 2016. If you’re fortunate enough to receive services from a company that works with your insurer, its full cost will likely meet your deductible and out-of-pocket maximums, but you will not receive a bill for the difference other than your co-insurance payments. If on the other hand, you fly with an out-of-network provider, you may be subject to a practice called balance billing, which makes you liable for the remaining portion of the bill that your insurer did not cover.

The amounts that you can be liable for may reach the tens of thousands of dollars, as one man in Texas found out. In this instance, the total bill for the transportation was $56,603, but his insurance company only covered $11,972, leaving him with a total bill of $44,631. Although the man in question has managed to have his insurer negotiate the remainder of the bill with the air ambulance service, many others are not so fortunate. Even when they’re not supposed to, many people still receive balance bills when receiving in-network services. In the event that you find yourself in such a situation, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners recommends reaching out to your state’s local insurance department in order to have the situation resolved.

While states’ rules in regard to balance billing for the privately insured vary, Medicare and Medicaid enrollees are protected from the practice altogether. A 2019 report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services outlines the general statistics surrounding air ambulance use as well as underlining the fact that regardless of the circumstances, air ambulance providers are expressly forbidden from charging anything beyond standard fees such as copayments and coinsurance.

Preparing For The Unexpected

Even if your medical insurance covers medical air transport, most, if not all, insurance companies only cover flights to the nearest serviceable facility. That means that they will not fly you to the hospital of your choice or a hospital in your network if the situation is urgent. Additionally, repatriation services—meaning medical air transportation back to your home country if you were travelling abroad—are seldom offered with traditional insurance plans. Partly due to this, air ambulance companies offer standalone memberships that cover the full cost of transportation and treatment during the flight to a hospital of your preference.

If you opt for one of these memberships, it is very important to make sure the company of your choice has a solid customer support team, as they will be the ones in charge of finding the nearest hospitals in your network if a time-sensitive situation arises.

Fleets: helicopters vs jets

Another thing to keep in mind when deciding which, if any, medical air transport company to choose is their composition of their fleet. Medical air transports come in two varieties: fixed wing (airplanes) and rotary wing (helicopter.) Many private and public providers have fleets composed of both types of aircraft, though this is not always the case, and while both types of aircraft have their pros and cons, it is important that the provider you choose has a fleet that best serves your needs.

Both types of craft require that your flight be further than 150 miles from the point of pickup to the hospital that will be treating you, but they have very different space considerations when it comes to takeoff and landing. Fixed wing craft will require a runway in order to touch down and take off, but are considerably more stable during flight. Rotor wing craft are able to reach more difficult terrain, but their flight distance is more limited and their cabins cannot be  pressurized, which can be hazardous for persons with specific injuries or conditions that require stable air pressure.

A general rule of thumb to follow is, if you live near any airports or airstrips, or are travelling abroad, a company with fixed-wing aircraft might be more useful to you. If, on the other hand, you live in either a mountainous area, a rural area without access to airports, or an area prone to severe traffic jams, a company with rotary wing craft might be better suited for your needs. In practice, if you really feel like you’ll need to make use of air ambulance services, it’s best to choose a company that has both types of craft in their fleet, as you never really know which one you’ll need in an emergency.

Accreditations: What Are They Good For?

Another factor when considering a membership with a particular air medical transport company is reviewing which, if any, accreditations they currently hold. Since the industry in the U.S. is currently unregulated at the federal level, it falls to individual states and independent organizations to conduct oversight and draft operational standards.

Due to the language used to draft the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, states have been largely unable to pass any sort of meaningful legislation with regards to the air medical transport industry. The National Association of State Emergency Medical Services Officials, in conjunction with state officials, has managed to build a basic framework for enacting said legislation, which at the very least would guarantee minimum standards of training and qualifications. 

That said, the few states that have drafted any sort of guidelines for the industry have done so by deferring to the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems’ (CAMTS) own guidelines. CAMTS, along with the European Aero-Medical Institute (EURAMI) are currently the largest organizations in charge of standardizing air medical transportation certification criteria across most of the world.

It is important to note that while these organizations take great care to ensure the highest standards of medical service during an air ambulance ride—in the U.S. at least—they are still unable to enact significant protections for consumers when it comes to the cost of the service.

What to Watch Out For

Memberships are not a guarantee

First and foremost, always remember that in a life-or-death situation, you may not actually have a choice as to who will be picking you up. Just because you have a membership with a specific provider does not mean that the first responders will know this and reach out to them. While not a guarantee, many medical air transport companies offer membership cards which can be useful in letting first responders know who to call for medevac services.

Always read the fine print

Another step you can take is to read the fine print on your medical insurance plan. While most private insurers include coverage for ground ambulance transportation, they only include air ambulance coverage in very specific situations. Even then, they only work with specific carriers, which may not be the ones called to your rescue. You can try speaking with your medical insurance provider to see if they can provide you with additional details on who to call if you find yourself in need of medevac services.


FAQs about Medical Evacuation


Can I cover my family with a medical air transportation membership?

Medical air transportation memberships tend to be fairly flexible. Most companies will allow you to enroll individuals or a whole family, with some companies even allowing persons above the age of 75 to enroll in a separate plan, something that is somewhat unusual in the industry.


Are these services covered by Medicare?

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, air ambulance services are covered in full by both Medicare and Medicaid, aside from standard copayments and deductible payments.

 


Are there resources available for low-income individuals?

The Massachusetts General Hospital has compiled some alternatives for low-income individuals, which you can read here: https://www.mghpcs.org/socialservice/resources/airlist.pdf

 


Can I use these services to transfer hospitals if I don’t like the one I’m in?

Most medical air transportation services require that a doctor establish a “medical need” before an air ambulance is considered, however, a few companies include provisions in their plans to allow for hospital-to-hospital transfers regardless of the situation.

 


How safe are these services, really? Aren’t planes and helicopters more dangerous than cars?

While it might seem scarier, flying, in general, is safer than even walking, according to the CDC’s statistics. In addition to this, a peer-reviewed study published in the British Medical Journal showed that overall, patients with traumatic injuries that were transported by air ambulance were 57.0% less likely to die than those transferred by ground ambulance.