ACCT Patient Advocacy Brief - Air Medical Denial
A seven-year-old struggling to breathe was transferred by critical care transport on a physician’s order—only for the insurer to later deny the flight as “not medically necessary” with no clinical explanation. This brief from the Association of Critical Care Transport shows why that level of care was required, how federal law (including EMTALA) and a physician’s Certificate of Medical Necessity already governed the decision, and what such unexplained denials mean for families and for access to care in rural communities. It also outlines four practical changes ACCT is asking payers and policymakers to make.