Job 37 · “$60,000 Ride” concept · official-data baseline
Air ambulance: what the public data actually supports
A current Medicare payment-schedule benchmark alongside the FAA’s latest published helicopter-air-ambulance totals—with charges, insurer payments and patient bills kept clearly separate.
Current fleet review queue
Explicit-name candidates in the FAA Part 135 workbook
These are legal operator names containing an explicit air-medical term. The table is a screening queue, not a complete provider census or proof that every listed aircraft currently performs medical missions.
Methodology
What was calculated
- Used HCPCS A0430/A0435 for fixed-wing base and mileage and A0431/A0436 for rotary-wing base and mileage.
- Calculated one consistent 100-mile example for every complete CMS carrier/locality row.
- Transcribed the FAA’s 2020–2022 national helicopter-air-ambulance totals without attributing them to individual operators.
- Checked Sprinkle’s operator records, but withheld provider and fleet claims: the database has no medical operator category and only two current links match explicit medical terms.
Sources and limits
How to cite it
FAA Part 135 operators · CMS Ambulance Fee Schedule Public Use Files · FAA CY2020 report · FAA CY2021 report · FAA CY2022 report
Suggested source line: “Sprinkle review of the current FAA Part 135 authorized-aircraft workbook, matched by N-number to Sprinkle aircraft records, plus the CMS 2026 Ambulance Fee Schedule and FAA reports to Congress.”
Do not turn this into a provider-price ranking. A billed charge, an allowed payment and a patient’s liability are different measures.