Prognosis
Air Ambulances Are Flying More Patients Than Ever, and Leaving Massive Bills Behind
Rising prices, billing disputes, and a quirk in federal law are creating a new health-care headache.
When three-year-old West Cox’s fever hit 107 degrees, doctors called a helicopter.
Hours earlier, the toddler, who’d been prescribed an antibiotic for a suspected ear infection, was at home in Princeton, West Virginia, watching cartoons and eating chips and salsa. Then, during a nap, he started to have convulsions, and his mother, Tabitha Cox, a physician assistant, drove him to the emergency room, stripped to his shorts to cool.