Faster Care, Better Recovery: Why Air Ambulances Are Crucial for Brain Injury Patients

By Christina Kanmaz, SOAR Campaign

Every nine seconds, someone in the United States sustains a brain injury.

Due to their unpredictable nature, brain injuries can happen anywhere and at any time. Air ambulances play a critical role in helping those who sustain brain injuries get the care they need quickly, especially in rural and underserved areas where the closest trauma center could be hundreds of miles away. Air medical flight bases stand at the ready 24/7 year-round and are staffed with highly trained medical professionals, critical care nurses, and emergency responders. This level of preparedness allows them to deploy at a moment’s notice – as soon as a car crash, drowning, stroke, seizure, or other medical emergency takes place. They can arrive at the scene of an emergency in a fraction of the time it takes a ground ambulance.

For those who sustain brain injuries, time is of the essence. The faster a patient arrives at a trauma center and receives continuous neurological care, the better their outcome. Each year, 2.8 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury, requiring immediate medical attention. Unfortunately, access to care is limited in certain parts of the country.

Since 2010, 136 rural hospitals have closed across the U.S., with 20 rural hospitals closing in 2020 alone, making it a record year for closures. This threatens a rural hospital’s ability to maintain access to services and, if they close, it puts the roughly 60 million Americans who live in rural areas at risk.

Your ZIP code should never determine the level of care you receive.

Protecting access to air ambulances is vital to ensuring patients who live far from a hospital or trauma center can be transported there quickly in emergencies. With more than 75% of the nation’s ICU beds full, hospitals and patients are increasingly reliant on air medical services for quick transport to hospitals and emergency rooms with open beds, which can sometimes be located hundreds of miles away in a different state.

Even though air ambulances have been crucial during the pandemic, a majority of emergency air medical providers continue to be reimbursed far below the actual cost of transport because more than 70% of their patients have Medicare, Medicaid, other government insurance, or are uninsured. Medicare reimbursement rates have not been updated in more than 20 years, and they only cover approximately 50% of transportation costs.

If air medical providers do not receive proper reimbursement, they could be forced to shut down their bases, further reducing access to care.

Private insurers have a responsibility, too. Patients should never be left with a bill they cannot afford, so private insurers must bring providers in-network with rates that are negotiated fairly. If large insurers refuse to bring independent air medical providers in-network and cover the true cost of services, millions could lose access to lifesaving care.

The recently passed No Surprises Act of 2020 takes a step in the right direction by putting patients first and removing them from the middle of billing disputes. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is proposing to implement this new law in a way that favors insurance companies over patients. If providers do not receive a fair reimbursement for providing medical care, they will be forced to reduce services or close their doors altogether. This would be devastating, particularly in rural areas where access is already a challenge.

While HHS reviews public comment on this new rule, we need patients to raise their voices to say that the No Surprises Act rule is unfair and threatens access to lifesaving care. You can learn more by heading to soarcampaign.com.

Brain injuries do not come with a warning – they can happen at any time and, when disaster strikes, air ambulances must be there to respond. The air medical industry must be preserved for the millions of patients who rely on the swift transport of air ambulances to get them safely to the nearest and most appropriate medical facility.

Christina Kanmaz is the national spokesperson for the Save Our Air Medical Resources (SOAR) Campaign

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This article originally appeared in Volume 15, Issue 4 of THE Challenge! published in 2021.