Air Ambulance

This policy covers medically necessary air ambulance (fixed‑ or rotary‑wing) transport—for emergent scene response and interfacility transfers—when ground or water ambulance is inappropriate or would endanger the patient, such as intracranial bleeding requiring neurosurgery, cardiogenic shock, major burns, life‑threatening trauma, stroke needing tPA, critically ill patients requiring hospital‑level monitoring/therapies, or when distances/obstacles (including rural/remote locations or travel times >30–60 minutes) preclude timely ground transport. Coverage is limited by mode‑specific constraints (rotary wing for short‑range scene access; fixed wing for long‑distance transfers and prolonged hospital‑level care en route) and excludes transports when the patient was legally dead before transport, when provided for convenience, to non‑acute destinations, for non‑medically necessary services, or when outside the enrollee’s benefit terms.

"Air ambulance (fixed wing or rotary wing) transport when the medical condition is such that transport by ground or water ambulance, in whole or in part, is not appropriate."