Air Ambulance companies provide medical flights for ill or injured patients. Some air ambulance companies offer their services domestically and internationally. Air ambulances are medically configured aircraft that fly patients from one medical facility to another or fly sick patients home that cannot otherwise travel by land transportation or fly commercially.

Aside from the medical fight itself, you want to try to find a company that offers additional services that can help ease the stress of a medical flight.

 

Insurance

Some air ambulance companies have dedicated legal teams on staff that work as patient advocates and deal with your insurance company for you. Sometimes the approval process can be long and involved, but if the air ambulance company has this type of service, they should able to review your insurance policy, submit your claim and work aggressively to get your flight approved. Not many companies offer this type of service, so be sure to do your research to find one with a dedicated in-house legal department that will go to bat for you.

 

Complete concierge service

Not many air ambulance companies can coordinate and handle every aspect of the medical flight, but some do. These companies offer a kind of "concierge service," where they can provide you with one point of contact to handle everything. They can arrange ground transportation for the patient as well as the flight. They can coordinate the schedules with the both the sending and receiving medical facilities. They may offer to have their medical flight crew accompany the patient every step of the way, starting from the ground transportation phase. This is not a common service. You'll need to do your research to find a company that provides this.

 

On-staff experts

We mentioned in-house legal teams of attorneys to help assist you with your insurance, but some air ambulance companies have Registered Nurse Flight Coordinators on staff to arrange your medical flight as well as other experts knowledgeable in case management, medicine and more.

 

What if the patient can fly commercially?

If the patient is stable enough or an air ambulance flight is not required, some air ambulance companies can provide medical transfers on commercial flights. This service is when a member of the air ambulance's medical team, for example, a flight paramedic or flight nurse accompanies the patient. Some air ambulance companies may arrange to provide a medical stretcher on a commercial flight.

These extra benefits are what top-notch air ambulance companies can provide. When you're doing your research for a medical flight, it's important to keep these additional services in mind.