Montana Air Ambulance Working Group

Report to MAC on the Air Ambulance Working Group
May 25, 2016
​Helena

On Feb. 4, 2016, the Economic Affairs Interim Committee voted to create an Air Ambulance Working Group to identify possible solutions to the decreasing the burden of air ambulance costs on Montanans.  The group is comprised of air ambulance providers, insurers, hospitals and consumers. The working group is responsible (via the State Auditor’s office) to report back to the Economic Affairs Interim Committee on the status of their work.

The Air Ambulance Working Group met on May 25th to continue discussions on the following proposed solutions:

1. Transparency/Disclosure: providing air ambulance provider fees/cost for out of network providers.
2. In-Network/Provider Data: fee data for in-network providers provided by BCBSMT and Allegiance (additional fee data is provided on the Montana State Legislature’s website)
3. Definition of Emergency: EMTALA definition of “emergency”
4. Hold Harmless: review the Hold Harmless laws of Florida and New York, and discuss binding arbitration.
5. Emergency Room Doctor (in replace of Hospital Panel): the working group listened to input from an emergency room physician from Bozeman Deaconess.
6. Provider Skill Set: Reviewing the nature of care based on air ambulance scenarios, and establishing fees based on the type of service provided.
7. Air Ambulance Billing Codes: Multiple billing codes were proposed to the working group.  This discussion will be continued in the next working group meeting.

A subcommittee/working group was established to begin drafting legislative language for a hold harmless statute. They will provide an update to the working group at the July 8th meeting. The Air Ambulance Working Group needs to have proposed solutions to the Economic Affairs Interim Commission Committee by end of August.  The working group will also continue discussing establishing cost based on provider skill sets and establishing a set of proposed billing codes.
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Though it was not on the agenda, membership (to air ambulance providers) programs, their cost and transparency was discussed at length during the first part of the meeting.  The group learned that many of these membership programs are operated from an organization that is “separate” from the air ambulance provider. Several within the group continued to have concerns over the lack of transparency with the memberships, the cost, and the lack of patient choice to call upon a flight within their membership.
Overall, while the meeting at times became heated and emotional, the level of discussion moved the group towards consensus on a possible short-term solution, particularly regarding a hold harmless statute/legislative change. 

For additional information, please visit click on the Air Ambulance Working Group

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