Congress angles for air ambulance cost transparency

Modern Healthcare: Last November, a fully insured North Dakotan was dispatched on an 84-mile medical air transport from Langdon, N.D., to Grand Forks. When the charges came in at more than $66,000, out-of-network insurance covered just $16,000.

The patient was left with a $50,000 bill balance from Valley Med Flight. The tab far exceeded the $29,000 to $30,000 average price for a cross-country charter flight on a private midsize jet from Virginia to Oregon—according to an informal estimate by the charter company EvoJets.

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