Domestic and International Air Ambulance Service

Free air ambulance with qualifying insurance

If your plan qualifies and the transport is medically necessary, the flight costs you nothing out of pocket. We verify the benefits at no charge, we document medical necessity with the treating physician, we obtain the authorization before the aircraft is released, and we bill the insurer under a signed assignment of benefits. We tell you where you stand before you commit to anything.

Qualifying plans are commercial and employer-sponsored health plans, federal and state employee plans, and TRICARE. Medicare and Medicaid do not pay for transport across an international border.

What we actually do

We secure the US hospital bed and the accepting physician

The aircraft is the easy part. When a relative is in a hospital abroad, the hard part is finding a hospital in the United States that will accept the patient and a physician there who will take over the care. Without those two things there is nowhere for the flight to land. Our mission coordinators work the receiving side first, then build the transport around that confirmation. In most of the countries we serve we can secure a receiving bed directly.

We verify your benefits before you commit

Send the insurance card front and back, the patient name and the hospital. Our insurance team reads the policy and calls the plan. You get a straight answer on what is covered, whether prior authorization is required, and what you would owe. No charge, no obligation to fly with us afterwards.

We fly our own aircraft and our own crews

We are not a broker. Our aircraft and medical crews are based in Latin America and the Caribbean rather than dispatched into the region from a US base, which routinely removes four to eight hours from a departure window. We hold the ground ambulance capability at the receiving end ourselves, which is why a confirmation does not take days.

Three situations people call us about

You have commercial health insurance

Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Anthem, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare and Humana all cover medically necessary air ambulance transport under most plans. What varies is the authorization path and whether the plan treats us as in or out of network. Where a plan has no contracted operator able to fly the mission, we negotiate a single-case agreement with the plan before departure.

You are paying for the flight yourself

A large share of the people who call us have no coverage, or a plan that will not cover the route. We quote those flights as one fixed all-inclusive price agreed in writing before you commit: aircraft, flight crew, medical crew, equipment, ground ambulance at both ends, landing, handling and permits. No post-flight invoice for extras. We will also tell you when a medical escort on a commercial airline is clinically adequate, which costs a fraction of a dedicated aircraft.

You are a hospital case manager or discharge planner

If you are holding a patient who is medically stable, has no funding source and nowhere to be discharged to, repatriation is usually the only discharge plan available. We secure the receiving hospital bed, locate relatives in the home country, and obtain missing personal documents such as birth certificates. A missing passport is rarely the blocker people assume: Mexico admits its own nationals as a constitutional right under Article 11 of its Constitution, so we repatriate patients there carrying no passport and no travel document at all. Where a destination does require one, we arrange it through the consulate. Send the medical summary, the destination and whoever authorizes the cost, and you get a fixed quote and a realistic departure window the same day.

Why the Florida licence matters

Jet Rescue Air Ambulance operates as Med Jets USA, Inc. under Florida Department of Health EMS Service Provider licence AIR9505, status clear, with no discipline on file. You do not have to take our word for it: the licence is verifiable by anyone on the State of Florida public licence register. A government licence you can check in thirty seconds is a different class of assurance from a private membership badge, and it is one of the reasons US hospitals and case managers are willing to work with a Mexican-based operator.

Jet Rescue Air Ambulance is an indirect air carrier. All flights are operated by FAA Part 135 certificated direct air carriers or their foreign equivalents.

What an air ambulance costs, and what moves the number

Price is driven by distance, by the aircraft the distance requires, and by the level of medical care on board. A short hop from the Caribbean into South Florida is a different order of cost from a transpacific mission needing an augmented crew and three technical stops. Within that, what moves the number most is whether the patient needs a ventilator, ECMO, an incubator, or a second physician.

We quote the whole mission as one figure rather than a per-hour rate that grows after the fact, and if insurance is likely to cover it we tell you that before quoting a self-pay price.

What to do right now

Call us, or send four things: a photo of the insurance card front and back, the patient name and date of birth, the hospital they are in, and a short description of the medical situation or the treating physician contact. If there is no passport, say so. It is rarely the obstacle people expect: Mexico admits its own nationals without a passport or safe-conduct as a constitutional right, and where a destination does require a document we arrange it through the consulate.

You will speak to a mission coordinator, not a call centre. The benefits review is free and carries no obligation.