Your air ambulance operation answers to an aviation regulator and a billing regime at the same time.
An air ambulance is an aircraft configured and staffed to move patients, either from the scene of an incident or between hospitals. It is a dual regulated business: the aviation side sits under federal aviation rules covering the aircraft, the crew and the operating certificate, while the clinical and billing side sits under health payment rules. The two regimes measure entirely different things about the same flight.
Neurobird Air Ambulance in short
- Hold the flight and the patient encounter as a single transport record rather than two reconciled ones.
- Track crew currency and aircraft status against the transports they were used for.
- Capture the billing factors at the time of transport, since disputes ask for them later.
- 270,000 Helicopter air ambulance patient transports rose from just over 200,000 to more than 270,000 across the decade to 2008. GAO-10-907
- 35 percent That represented growth of about 35 percent in helicopter patient transports over the same period. GAO-10-907
- Pricing runs 190 to 960 US dollars per month across 3 tiers. Early access is free.
What air ambulance operators and hospital flight programmes actually deal with
Why it stays broken
Aviation software tracks tails, hours and crew currency. Clinical software tracks patients. The billing regime asks about the transport as a single event with attributes drawn from both, including quality and outcome measures of the provider that furnished the service. No system holds the flight and the patient encounter as one record, so every claim is a reconciliation.
80 percent of air ambulance aircraft are helicopters, which is why rotorcraft operating rules dominate the compliance picture.
An OCC is required for operators conducting helicopter air ambulance (HAA) operations with 10 or more HAAs and is recommended for other operators.
Neurobird Air Ambulance Dispatch Platform
One record per transport that carries the aircraft, the crew, the clinical encounter and the billing attributes together.
- 1Hold the flight and the patient encounter as a single transport record rather than two reconciled ones.
- 2Track crew currency and aircraft status against the transports they were used for.
- 3Capture the billing factors at the time of transport, since disputes ask for them later.
- 4Keep the documentation a payment dispute will request in one retrievable place.
What changes with Neurobird Air Ambulance?
The same work, read left to right: how it runs today, and how it runs once the record is in one place.
| Today | With Neurobird Air Ambulance |
|---|---|
| Flight records and patient records live in separate systems and have to be married up for every claim | Hold the flight and the patient encounter as a single transport record rather than two reconciled ones. |
| Crew currency and aircraft airworthiness are tracked by operations while billing chases the same flight separately | Track crew currency and aircraft status against the transports they were used for. |
| Payment disputes later ask for factors that nobody thought to capture at the time of the transport itself | Capture the billing factors at the time of transport, since disputes ask for them later. |
Who is this for?
Three places the aviation record and the clinical record fail to meet.
One flight, two systems
The aviation record proves the aircraft and crew were legal. The clinical record proves what was done for the patient. A claim needs both, and reconciling them per transport is a recurring administrative cost that scales with volume.
Rotorcraft rules dominate
Helicopters make up more than 80 percent of air ambulance aircraft, and federal law addresses helicopter air ambulance operations specifically, including safety improvements for crew, medical personnel and passengers on board.
Factors captured too late
Payment determination for air ambulance services considers defined factors including quality and outcome measurements of the provider that furnished the service. Those are far easier to evidence if they were recorded at the transport rather than assembled during a dispute.
What the numbers say about air ambulance operations
The figures below come from federal oversight of the sector. The aviation ones and the billing ones describe the same flights from different directions.
Helicopter air ambulance patient transports rose from just over 200,000 to more than 270,000 across the decade to 2008.
GAO-10-907That represented growth of about 35 percent in helicopter patient transports over the same period.
GAO-10-907Helicopters make up more than 80 percent of air ambulance aircraft, carrying patients from incident scenes and between hospitals.
GAO-10-907Federal law addresses safety for crew, medical personnel and passengers on helicopters providing air ambulance services under the relevant operating part.
49 U.S.C. 44730The federal advisory committee on air ambulance and patient billing issued its recommendations in 2022.
US Department of TransportationHow does Neurobird Air Ambulance work?
Dispatch
A transport opens one record covering aircraft, crew and patient, so the flight and the encounter never diverge into separate histories.
Fly and treat
Operational and clinical detail attach to the same transport, which is the unit both regulators and payers actually reason about.
Bill and defend
Billing attributes are captured at the time rather than reconstructed, so a payment dispute is answered from the record.
See it work
A short walk through a transport from dispatch to claim.
Drag a job onto a director to assign it.
Air ambulance software questions, answered
Key terms
- What is an air ambulance operation?
- It is an aircraft operation configured and staffed to transport patients, either from an incident scene to a hospital or between facilities. The aviation component covers maintaining and piloting the aircraft and is regulated federally, while the medical component covers the clinical care delivered in flight. Oversight is therefore split: one regulator is concerned with whether the aircraft and crew were legal to fly, another set of rules with how the service is paid for.
Why do helicopters dominate the sector?
Because of the mission profile. Helicopter air ambulances transport patients from the scene of an accident to a hospital, or perform short distance transfers between hospitals, and they make up more than 80 percent of air ambulance aircraft. Federal law addresses helicopter air ambulance operations specifically, including measures aimed at the safety of flight crew, medical personnel and passengers on board.
How much has the sector grown?
Substantially, at least over the period federal auditors examined. Between 1999 and 2008 the number of patients transported by helicopter air ambulance rose from just over 200,000 to more than 270,000, an increase of about 35 percent, alongside growth in the number of dedicated air ambulance helicopters. Those figures describe that decade rather than the present day, but they explain how the sector reached its current shape.
What do payment disputes look at?
Defined factors specific to air ambulance services. Payment determination considers information including quality and outcomes measurements of the provider that furnished the service, and the rules recognise additional circumstances particular to air ambulance work. The practical implication for an operator is that the evidence supporting a claim is easier to assemble if it was captured at the time of the transport.
Is the software available now?
No. It is in development and open for early access. We are building the single transport record with operators who currently reconcile two systems for every flight.
Why we are building this
Air ambulance is one of the few businesses answering fully to two unrelated regulators about the same event.
The aviation side wants to know the aircraft and crew were legal. The payment side wants to know what was done for the patient and what factors justify the charge. Operators end up keeping two records of one flight and marrying them up afterwards, every time.
So we are building the transport as a single record. The Neurobird Team is starting with operators who already know how much of their administrative cost is reconciliation.
Where the requirement comes from
The rules that govern the aircraft, the crew and the claim.
- GAO-10-907, air ambulance services Industry change over the decade to 2008 and the split of federal and state oversight.
- 49 U.S.C. 44730, helicopter air ambulance operations Statutory provisions specific to helicopter air ambulance safety.
- Federal Register, requirements related to surprise billing How payment determinations treat air ambulance services and which factors apply.
- US Department of Transportation, air ambulance service Consumer protection work on air ambulance and patient billing.
- FAA Advisory Circular 135-14B Guidance for helicopter air ambulance operations.
How much does Neurobird Air Ambulance cost?
Early access pricing, held for the first 12 months for operators who help shape the build.
- Transport records
- Crew and aircraft linkage
- Billing attribute capture
Get free early access
We want operations directors who reconcile a flight record and a patient record for every claim.
Straight answer on where this is: The software is unfinished. Transport records, crew linkage and billing attribute capture work. There is no flight following integration and no clearinghouse connector yet.
Prefer email? Write to office@neurobird.com and a person will reply. No autoresponder.