Bill proposing transparency for air ambulance memberships heads to House floor

By Natalia Gomez del Campo, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A bill passed by a House committee this week would set guardrails for companies selling memberships for air ambulance services.
House Bill 2874‘s sponsor, Rep. Bill Allen, R-Kansas City, called it a transparency bill at a hearing Feb. 16. Part of the bill is preventing air ambulance companies from selling memberships to recipients of Medicaid, which is administered through and also known as MO HealthNet.
Allen says this is because the memberships, many of which automatically renew, have Missourians paying extra fees for an emergency service that MO HealthNet already covers.
Allen said that it’s common for those who buy memberships to not always receive the services, such as when members ask for an ambulance service outside of the designated radius that the company provides.
“Because of this, it’s important that we ensure Missourians, especially the most vulnerable Missourians, are not misled or sold something that they don’t need,” Allen said.
The bill would require the companies to give refunds to recipients of MO HealthNet who bought a membership if they request one within 30 days of enrolling, or to allow them to pass on the membership to another person — not a recipient of Medicaid — in their household.
Allen pointed out ambulance memberships are not the same thing as health insurance and have no regulation. For example, they don’t all have to adhere to state marketing laws, something the bill aims to address.
The bill also has general transparency requirements, such as full disclosure in marketing materials. Allen calls this a consumer protection bill that puts “little to no burden on businesses.”
LifeFlight Eagle, a company that operates in western Missouri and eastern Kansas, calls this bill a “non-issue” for them because they already comply with these rules. They don’t sell their services to MO HealthNet recipients and have transparent terms and conditions listed on their website.
Rep. Jaclyn Zimmerman, D-Manchester, asked Allen at the hearing what would happen if MO HealthNet stopped covering air ambulance services altogether. Allen said he didn’t want to speculate, but if this were to happen, that would be something that would need to be addressed.
In 2025 a similar measure passed the House but died in the Senate.