Air ambulances in the United States

Air ambulances in the United States are operated by a variety of hospitals, local government agencies, and for-profit companies.

Medical evacuations by air are also performed by the United States Armed Forces (for example in combat areas, training accidents, and United States Coast Guard rescues) and United States National Guard (typically while responding to natural disasters).

In 2002, the federal government increased the reimbursement for medical flights for Medicare and Medicaid patients.

This caused an increase in the number of for-profit ambulance services, which charge much higher rates than non-profit hospitals and expanded services available to people with private health insurance.

With lower reimbursements, hospitals could still operate the service as a loss leader because severely injured patients would be incurring significant charges for medical treatment.