Air Evac LifeTeam Excessive Charges Imposed Multi-State Class Action

At issue in this class action are charges for air transport in case of medical emergencies. The complaint alleges that Air Evac EMS, Inc., which does business as Air Evac LifeTeam, overcharges patients for transportation, noting that those needing emergency air transport are generally in no condition to make decisions or negotiate rates.

The multi-state class for this action is all persons billed by Air Evac, or who paid a bill from Air Evac, for air medical transport that Air Evac carried out from a location in [a particular state]. The states for involved for the plaintiffs in this case include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.

The sixteen plaintiffs in this case, the complaint alleges, “were transported by [Air Evac] in an emergent situation where there was no contractual relationship and no agreement with respect to the transports.”

The complaint points out that “first responders or medical personnel generally determine whether a patient needs emergency helicopter transport. The transportation is arranged and patients are transported, without their knowledge or express or informed consent, or under the duress of life-threatening or other serious medical conditions that require immediate treatment at a hospital.”

But there’s another reason negotiation and consent are impossible: Air Evac, the complaint says, does not reveal its pricing. Only afterwards does Air Evac send a bill with a mileage charge and a “helicopter rotor base charge,” demanding payment for an amount that the complaint claims “vastly exceeds both the cost to provide the transport and the fair market value of the transport.”

The complaint quotes an officer of a different air transport company as saying that if “everybody paid their fair share, you know what the charge for this service would be? $12,000.”

Instead, the amount billed, the complaint says, is “four times that amount and more.”

However, since patients did not enter into a contract, the complaint says, their contractual obligations can only be based on state law. But the complaint says this is not permitted under the federal Airline Deregulation Act (ADA).

After the transportation has taken place, Air Evac has patients “sign assignment of benefits or authorization to bill forms (‘AOB’) prepared by” Air Evac, the complaint says. The forms “seek to bind [patients] to pay whatever [Air Evac] charges, regardless of the reasonableness of the charged amounts.”

The third-party payors then pay only a “reasonable amount” for the transport service, and Air Evac “balance bills” the patient for the remainder of the amount. The complaint notes alleges that the Air Evac “charges are so exorbitant that almost no third-party payor pays them in full, frequently leaving a staggering amount to be balance billed.” After that, it says, “most patients cannot pay them.” It notes that the company’s “actual collection rates for the receivables are very low (less than 5%)” leaving the patients at the mercy of bill collectors.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: medical
Tags: Balance Billing, Emergency Transportation, Excessive Fees, Medical Billing