空中救护车以会员身份吸引农村消费者购买该服务

空中救护车以会员身份吸引农村消费者购买该服务

On a hot June day in Fort Scott, Kan., 7-year-old Kaidence Anderson sat in the shade with her family, waiting for a medevac helicopter to land.

在堪萨斯州斯科特堡6月的一个炎热的日子，7岁的凯丹斯·安德森和她的家人坐在阴凉处，等待一架医疗直升机降落。

A crowd had gathered to see the display prearranged by staff at the town's historic fort.

一群人聚集在该镇历史悠久的堡垒，观看由工作人员事先安排的展览。

"It's going to show us how it's going to help other people because we don't have the hospital anymore," the redheaded girl explained.

“这将向我们展示它如何帮助其他人，因为我们已经没有医院了，”红头发的女孩解释说。

Mercy Hospital Fort Scott closed at the end of 2018, leaving this rural community about 90 miles south of Kansas City, Kan., without a traditional hospital.

斯科特堡的慈善医院于2018年底关闭，使这个位于堪萨斯州堪萨斯城以南约90英里(约合80公里)的乡村社区没有一家传统的医院。

The community has outpatient clinics run by a regional nonprofit health center and — at least temporarily — an emergency department operated as a satellite of a hospital a county away.

这个社区的门诊部由一个地区性的非营利性医疗中心运营，而且还有一个急诊室（至少是暂时的），作为县外一家医院的附属机构。

Since the hospital closed, air ambulance advertising has become a more common sight in Fort Scott mailboxes.

自从医院关闭后，空中救护广告在斯科特堡的邮箱里变得越来越常见。

The air ambulance industry expanded by more than a hundred bases nationwide from 2012 to 2017 and prices increased as well, according to a recent federal report. The median price charged for a medevac helicopter transport was $36,400 in 2017 — a 65% increase compared with the roughly $22,100 charged in 2012, according to the March report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

根据最近的一份联邦报告，从2012年到2017年，空中救护行业在全国范围内扩大了100多个基地，价格也有所上涨。美国政府问责局3月份的报告显示，2017年，一架医疗直升机的运输费用中值为3.64万美元，较2012年的约2.21万美元上涨65%。

Private insurance frequently does not cover the full cost of the trips, and consumers often are surprised to get a bill showing they are responsible for the bulk of the charges. However, both Medicare and Medicaid control the price of the service, so enrollees in those government insurance programs face much lower out-of-pocket costs or have none.

私人保险通常不能支付旅程的全部费用，而且消费者常常会惊讶于他们要为账单上显示的大部分费用负责。然而，医疗保险和医疗补助计划都控制着这项服务的价格，所以那些政府保险项目的参保者会付更少的费用，或者根本没有。

"We're a safety net for people in rural areas," Myers said. "Generally, if I tell you the names of the towns that most of our bases are located in, you wouldn't know them unless you lived in that state."

迈尔斯说:“我们是农村地区人民的安全网。“一般来说，如果我告诉你我们大多数基地所在城镇的名字，除非你住在那个州，否则你是不会知道它们的。”

Increasingly, though, state regulators have a skeptical view.

不过，州监管机构对此越来越持怀疑态度。

North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread called the memberships "another loophole" that air ambulance companies use to "essentially exploit our consumers." The state banned the memberships in 2017, noting that the subscription plans don't solve the problem of surprise medical bills as promised.

北达科他州保险专员乔恩·戈德弗雷德称会员资格是“另一个漏洞”，空中救护公司利用这个漏洞“从本质上剥削我们的消费者”。国家在2017年禁止了这些会员资格，指出这些订阅计划并没有像承诺的那样解决意外医疗账单的问题。

Too often, the company responding to a patient's call for help is not the one the patient signed up with, Godfread said. North Dakota has nine different air ambulance operators that respond to calls, and patients have no control over which will be called, he explained.

戈德弗雷德说，通常情况下，响应患者求助请求的公司并不是患者注册的公司。他解释说，北达科他州有九家不同的空中救护公司负责接听呼叫，而病人无法控制呼叫哪一家。

Myers said having a membership offers peace of mind particularly to those Medicare enrollees who do not have an added supplemental insurance plan that covers transportation.

迈尔斯说，有会员资格可以让人安心，特别是对那些没有包括交通保险在内的补充保险计划的医保参保者。

Also, because the memberships are not officially insurance or a covered benefit, air ambulance companies can end them at any time "without obligation to notify the customer".

此外，由于这些会员资格不是正式的保险或覆盖的福利，空中救护公司可以在任何时候终止它们，“没有义务通知客户”。