When a medical flight is needed, it’s an expense that few people are readily prepared for. Most people are looking for some form of insurance coverage. At Air Ambulance Worldwide, our flight specialist team has extensive experience in working with insurance carriers to maximize coverage on air ambulance flights.
Each insurance policy is a little different, so that makes it hard to say whether your insurance company will pay for air ambulance flights. Typically, for all insurance coverage, the flight needs to be medically necessary, and a medical flight needs to be the only effective transportation option.
Travel Insurance and Air Ambulance/MedEvac Coverage
If you’re hospitalized far from home, whether in another state or another country, typically your personal medical insurance will not pay for medical flights home. However, this is an area where travel insurance typically covers the medical flight.
Most travel insurance policies offer coverage for medical flights and medical evacuations under the “medical evacuation and repatriation” coverage. Generally, medical evacuation and repatriation costs are covered up to a certain point, depending on plans. Most plans cover between $100,000 and $500,000 of medical evacuation and repatriation.
When medevacs are needed, travel insurance typically covers 100% of the flight cost (of course – depending on which plan you have).
If you’re abroad or in another state, and need a medical flight home, give the team at Air Ambulance Worldwide a call. Our experienced flight specialists have worked with almost every travel insurance company in the US, and will be able to guide you on best next steps for getting your loved one home.
Typical Medical Insurance and Air Ambulance Coverage
If you’re in the US and have American health insurance, your air ambulance coverage is likely to vary widely with which insurance company and healthcare plan you have.
If you have Medicaid or Medicare, medical flights are only covered in specific situations when medically necessary.
If you’re an American and you’re out of the country, it’s highly unlikely your medical insurance will cover any medical flight home. That’s typically expected to be covered by travel insurance. If you don’t have travel insurance, Air Ambulance Worldwide has self-pay rates for medical evacuation flights.
If you’re in another state and looking for a medical flight to get home, this is another area where your health insurance company will likely expect you to foot the bill for the medical flight (unless, of course, it’s medically necessary for you to be in a facility that happens to be closer to your home).
The best way to determine whether your insurance will cover a medical flight is to call the flight coordinators at Air Ambulance Worldwide. Having worked with hundreds of different insurance policies, they can walk you through your insurance coverage and flight options to get you or a loved one home fast.