Air Methods Corp., Rocky Mountain Holdings Facing Suit Over ‘Unreasonable’ Helicopter Medical Transport Costs

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Two plaintiffs have filed a proposed class action lawsuit on behalf of their minor child against defendants Air Methods Corporation and Rocky Mountain Holdings, LLC. The plaintiffs allege that rather than charge patients a uniform and customary rate for emergency helicopter transport services to hospitals, the defendants charge high prices that bear “no reasonable relationship to the services rendered or what is customarily charged for the services.” Of the defendants’ alleged helicopter medical transport pricing “scheme,” the plaintiffs claim the companies have been unjustly enriched and have broken “the covenant of good faith and fair dealing” through forcing such costs onto patients without regard to “any health insurance payor, managed care payor, or governmental payor.”

In the 28-page complaint, the plaintiffs—whose infant had to be transported in August 2015 to a hospital 97 miles away from their home at a reported cost of $52,634.76—allege the defendants hide their pricing structure from patients by staying away from preferred provider contracts with managed care companies as a means to require individuals to pay bills in full and then seek reimbursement from insurers. Moreover, the defendants allegedly do not negotiate rates with patients, instead preferring to impose excessive charges that do not jibe with services provided nor any rational pricing analysis.

The suit, originally filed in August 2017, was months later removed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.