Air Methods, Collection Firm Sued Over Allegedly Undisclosed, ‘Excessive’ Air Transport Pricing

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Air Methods Corporation and Rocky Mountain Holdings, LLC face a proposed class action lawsuit in which six plaintiffs claim the air ambulance transport company and its collections subsidiary have charged exorbitant prices for their services that the patients never agreed to pay.

The case points out that persons in need of medical transportation by helicopter are often unconscious, medicated, or otherwise incapable of providing informed consent to pay for the service before being transported. Even when a patient is coherent enough to sign a written contract, the defendants, the suit alleges, fail to disclose their pricing or otherwise inform patients of the amount of the charges.

According to the lawsuit, the rate for air transportation is calculated after the transport is complete by using a “base charge” and a charge for “mileage.” The case argues that although these rates can be determined prior to each air transport, and the defendant knows what it will charge consumers, the amounts are not disclosed to patients at the time of transport, nor on the defendants’ website or in written contracts.

When patients are unable to pay their bills, the defendants initiate collection efforts, the lawsuit explains, and in some cases pursue litigation in state court.

“It is fundamentally unfair, and shocking to the conscience, that persons who are transported while gravely injured by a company called to respond without their knowledge or express or informed consent can be charged whatever price Defendants choose, and there is zero opportunity for Plaintiffs to challenge Defendants’ purported plenary power,” the complaint reads.

The plaintiffs claim they were unaware of the defendants’ pricing until they were saddled with exorbitant bills in excess of tens of thousands of dollars—amounts they say they never agreed to pay. Calculating the plaintiffs’ base charges and mileage charges for air transport services from the defendant, the average of the individuals’ bills comes to almost $46,000, the lawsuit says, with an average base charge of $27,825.45 and an average charge of $302.48 per mile.

The lawsuit asks the court determine whether proposed class members are legally obligated to pay the defendants’ fees and, if so, determine “the proper price” for such fees.

The suit proposes the following two classes:

“All persons billed by Defendants, or who paid a bill from Defendants, for air medical transport that Defendants carried out from a location in the United States without an express price term, prior to transport, setting the specific mileage and base rate charges.”

“All persons billed by Defendants, or who paid a bill from Defendants, for air medical transport that Defendants carried out from a location in the United States without a contract signed by Plaintiff or their agent, prior to transport.”