Life Flight

[Crazymofo]

Many people are totally unaware that they can become a "member" of Life Flight and as a result find out how expensive those services are the hard way. A very good friend of mine went down on the Aufderheide about two weeks ago as many of you know already. He was busted up a bit and was transported by air because of where we were and how long it would take to transport him by ground. Well, I talked to him today and he was telling me about the bill he received from the Life Flight chopper for a whopping $16,434(yes, that is sixteen thousand and change. not a misprint)!! That is the cost of being transported by air from FR19 about 30 miles from Hwy 126 to Sacred Heart Hospital. This prompted me to encourage anyone that rides a bike to think about joining Air life of Oregon (http://www.airlife.org/Membership_agreement.html) to avoid the burden of dealing with crap like this while trying to heal up after a crash. We all participate in a very dangerous sport and the odds that we will need their services at some point are pretty high. Membership is only $50 a year for helicopter or $90 a year for helicopter/ambulance. This not only covers you but also family members that are living with you so you can't go wrong with joining especially when you think about the fact that it costs as much as you spend on gas in a day while riding. I am definitely going to join and would strongly encourage others to as well. :2cents: I will shut up now:blah-blah

[AndrewR6]

Wow Good tip. That is an outrageous amount for 30 miles of air travel;

[Jane Honda]

Yea that is a bit outrageous! Good information though! Thank you for posting it. I think I will be getting this as well.

[superhawk ben]

WOW that's $547.80 a mile:censored: . $50 to $90 a year sounds cheep when you look at that way. It would take about 18 years of payments to = one flight:crazy: .

[TOM-CAT]

Wow I had no idea it would cost that much:eek:. Yeah I am a firemed and life flight member, and I too would encourage everyone to at least strongly consider and weigh their options. If you have to ask yourself whether or not you need this service, you probably do!

[Crazymofo]

WOW that's $547.80 a mile:censored: . $50 to $90 a year sounds cheep when you look at that way. It would take about 18 years of payments to = one flight:crazy: .
He said that the base charge is like $9600 and then it is $125 per mile. They must have counted the miles from when they were circling as well.

[R-666]

And no inflight movie either.... that sucks!:idunno:

[Matt]

Hmmmmm...Maybe I should look into this. Seems like something I'd probably put to use

[ButtnPushnMonky]

I was there when he wrecked, and have to say (professionally speaking) that he barely needed an ambulance and certainly didn't need a helicopter, but that wasn't my call.

Also, Last Saturday I was riding my 4-wheeler in the woods west of Junction City with two other friends, and one of them wrecked breaking his femur. It took us (the fire department) 3 hours to pack him out by hand because of the trail we were on. He also went by helicopter. His bill was $13,900.

We get basic Firemed through the Fire Department we are both on but the Life Flight coverage is extra.

In both cases it was Reach was the helicopter service. Reach is pretty new to the area (within the last couple of months) but has been operating in california for years.

Also, when they first started in the area they said that they would honor the lifeflight coverage on firemed if you have it.