Transcripts For WPVI Nightline 20160317 : vimarsana.com

And tres shoes for him and her. Get 10 off a 25 purchase with coupon. Thats getting your pennys worth. How much protein does your dog food have . 18 . 20 . Purina one with real venison has 30 protein. Support your active dogs whole body health with purina one. Number one in just 60 seconds. Good evening. Thank you for joining us. Millions of americans are rushed to the hospital every year. 400,000 of them transported by emergency helicopter. Many times its a life or death flight where every second counts. But the Service Often comes with a skyhigh price tag. Tonight abcs chief investigative correspondent brian ross examines the big business of air ambulances. Youre talking about very critically injured patients. Traumas, strokes, heart attacks. Reporter emergency workers call it the golden hour. The crucial 60 minutes to get medical care for a patient facing death. Failure to get them to the care probably means they arent going to survive. Reporter that urgent need to beat the golden hour clock that is spawned a nationwide fleet of helicopter ambulances, saving countless lives. But our nightline investigation conduct the with abc stations across the country also found it has left many of the very people it saved facing financial turmoil with bills as high as 40,000 or 50,000 for a short flight. Would you call this price gouging . Some of it is. Theres no question that some of it is. Reporter behind those heartwarming stories of lives saved is a hardedged air ambulance industry free to set any price it want. Takes advantage of people at a very vulnerable moment. Reporter loren larson, a helicopter pilot himself, says he was stunned at the cost of the quick flight for his daughter after she was injured in a serious offroad atv accident. 47,000 for 79 miles. After insurance and a failed negotiation, he still owes 36,000. Its definitely going to cripple us financially. Reporter he is not alone. We found hundreds of families. Im worried to death about it. Its very stressful worrying about it. Reporter being sued. I dont have the money to give them. So my wife and my son and myself dont wind up being homeless. Reporter hounded by debt collectors. I look, i see the number, i say, i know who it is, i dont want to talk. Reporter human bills their insurance wont cover. I feel i can never dig out. Reporter some forced into bankruptcy. One after another patients told us how they felt they had been taken for a ride in more ways than one. I wasnt asked if i wanted to go on the helicopter. I didnt think it would hurt that bad. Reporter 91yearold warren lowe and his wife ethel were on their way to church in virginia when an uninsured driver slammed into them. Whats your emergency . Car wreck on 89. Several people hurt. Reporter lowes leg was shattered and doctors at his local hospital wanted him sent to a Trauma Center 55 miles away. Didnt nobody tell me nothing. They just took me, put me in the helicopter, and gone. Reporter the cost, 47,000 for a 20minute helicopter ride. I couldnt believe it when we looked at it. 47,000 . Thats ridiculous. Reporter lowes bill came from air methods, the biggest of the forprofit helicopter Ambulance Companies with more than 370 helicopters operating in 48 states. The publicly traded air methods posted profits last year of more than 100 million. Even as Insurance Companies complained their bills were excessive. Its ceo, aaron todd, earned almost 500 million last year. Aircraft hike this serves about a 150mile radius. Reporter but he sent someone else to answer our questions at one of their bases in rural illinois. We serve 82 million rural americans across the country who would not have access to trauma care within the critical hour, whats called the golden hour. Reporter air methods Vice President paul webster said the company is willing to lower its bill for those who can prove financial hardship. He says the real problem that is many Insurance Companies and medicare and medicaid wont cover the full cost of helicopter flights. If everybody paid their fair share, you know what the charge for this service would be . 12,000. Thats the reality. Youre shifting the cost to people who have insurance, and when their insurance doesnt pay, you go after them in court . The other choice is you put them into bankruptcy . The other choice is this service and this access goes away. Reporter no, its not, say the people who run a nonprofit air ambulance service, set up by five hospitals in the dallas area. Care flight. So were going to methodist, this Brown Building here reporter the company with its own fleet of stateoftheart aircraft this is an 8 million aircraft. Reporter charges substantially less and does not use debt collectors to go after its patients. How could you be absolutely committed to saving that persons life and then turn around and sue them . Because they cant pay a bill . The ceo of care flight, jim schwartz, says air methods has developed a reputation as an aggressive bottomline company trying to please its wall street investors. No one should be surprised a forprofit company acts like a forprofit company. You raise the price as high as you can, as fast as you can. And you try to collect as much as you can and use whatever tactics you have to. Reporter jean medina got a 35,000 bill from air methods after her teenage daughter, sofia, on a family vacation, developed complications from a tonsillectomy. The surgery itself was 16,000. The helicopter was 35,000. It seems a crazy amount of money. Reporter after insurance and a protracted back and forth, she still owes 17,000. And medina questions whether her daughters 37mile medevac trip was necessary. It took almost an hour for the helicopter just to arrive and load, and she was able to drive the distance in almost the same amount of time. I left a few minutes before they took off and ended up arriving at the hospital about five minutes after they did. Reporter air methods said its flight crews provide medical care that a ground ambulance could not. The same thing could not have been accomplished on the ground. Because of the level of care that she receives inside the helicopter. Reporter according to the flight logs for medinas daughter, no extraordinary treatments were necessary. If the patient really isnt time sensitive, we can take them by ground and were a nonprofit, therefore were not going to try to figure out the most expensive way to do it. Reporter the decision to call in a helicopter ambulance is made by attending doctors. But the families, like the larsons of kentucky, are the ones on the hook for the cost. Warren larson says he was being treated himself, given morphine, when he signed this air methods consent form for his daughters medevac trip which in small print made him personally and fully responsible for the bill. They said, dont worry about it, its just a standard form, just give us permission to transport your daughter. Reporter nowhere on the standard form does it inform the patient or guardian of the expected cost. Why dont you put the price here . I can get back with you on that. Youre the Vice President in charge of this. This is your standard form. Why dont you put the price here so people know what theyre signing on for . Sure, its a question that i can ask. You dont know the answer . No, i dont. Never been raised before . No, it has not. Reporter state insurance regulators say they have been unable to rein in the prices or tactics air methods and other helicopter Ambulance Services because of a loophole in the federal law. Al redner is the insurance commissioner in maryland. When the federal government deregulated the airlines industry, these commercial Helicopter Companies were part of that. As if theyre major air carriers . Thats right. You cant regulate them because of faa rules . Thats right. They can get away with these charges, charge whatever they want . They can, they can. Reporter of course, many of the air methods customers praise the Service Provided by the company, including kim downs whose daughter suffered lifethreatening injuries in an auto accident in illinois. But i was told they initially thought she was dead. Yeah. That it was extreme. Reporter and recently showed up to thank the flight crew. She wouldnt be here today if it wasnt for them. Theyre angel in the sky. Truly. Reporter the bill was 55,000. But her insurance covered it all. And she never had to face the air methods tactics that so many others say they have had to suffer through. Theyre asking for help. Theyre not asking for threatening their life savings or anything else. Theyre not asking for a lawsuit. Theyre asking you to help save their life. Reporter for nightline, this is brian ross, abc news, new york. Join the conversation on our Nightline Facebook page. Next, its a showdown in the most epic superhero battle of alltime. Ben Afflecks Batman versus Henry Cavills superman. Were behind the scenes with the superstar cast. Youll ask what body aches . What knee pain . What sore elbow . What joint pain . Advil liquigels are so fast, they make pain a distant memory nothing works faster stronger or longer than advil liquigels the worlds 1 choice what pain . Advil. Start with a specialist. Start with a team of experts who treat only cancer. Every stage. Every day. The evolution of cancer care is here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com experts. Appointments available now. Thats why i run on quickbooks. Details. I use the payments app to accept credit cards. And everything autosyncs. Those sales prove my sustainable designs are better for the environment and my bottom line. Thats how i own it. vo whatscorn . Dog foods first ingredient . Wheat . In purina one true instinct grain free, real chicken is always 1. No corn, wheat or soy. Support your active dogs whole body health with purina one. Ifor all the wrong reasons. Gical you may be muddling through allergies. Try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. And zyrtec® is different than claritin®. Because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. Try zyrtec®. Muddle no more®. They are the good guys of the comic book world. For the first time ever, clark kent and bruce wayne are suiting up for the big screen together, facing on of in an epic battle that might become an epic partnership. Chris connelly goes behind the scenes with ben affleck and henry cavill in batman vs. Superman dawn the justice. Reporter he may be the new man in the bat suit. With major bat boots to fill. Ben affleck says hes long been drawn to the departments of the dark knight. Batmans the most interesting superhero in a way because hes the most human. Hes the most like us. He can be kind of broken. Which is really fascinating to be coupled with all this heroic stuff. Reporter the movie pits the two mightiest icons of the dc comics universe against each other. Stay down if i wanted it youd be dead already reporter batman vs. Superman is the wait, what . Of movie titles. Its counter intuitive. You think, a, theyre both good guys. And b, how could batman fight superman since superman is an alien and way stronger and invulnerable . If youd ra have a head to head, batman vs. Superman punchup, we know who wins. Reporter batman vs. Superman uses multiple story strains jesse isenbergs stringpullingvillian to put the dogooders at odds. Starting with a reprise of the end of man of steel and its destruction of the metropolis. You do have to realize that there is Collateral Damage which happens and someones going to get blamed. That someone happened to be superman. It was important to sort of see that, yeah, theres consequence. It would be amazing if bruce wayne witnessed that. He has the power to wipe out the entire human race. If we believe theres even a 1 chance hes an enemy we have to take it as absolute certainty and we have to destroy him. Reporter he takes on 32yearold Henry Cavills superman clark kent. Affleck at 43 is the oldest ever to be past at bruce wayne. I wanted a batman that had been batman for 20 years. He had the experiences that we know sort of collectively in pop culture. I felt like that character had a chance against superman. Because he could outthink him. I wanted to be this one of these movies that was ballsy and had something to say. I wanted to do a movie my kids would think its cool. My son thinks its cool. Reporter samuel, his youngest, led affleck to meet the actor who excelled in the three batman epics who elevated the genre and grossed more than 1 billion tom stick. I was in literally a costume shop. Not only that but my son, really into batman, wanted a batman costume. I was in the batman aisle. I hear, ben, is that you . I turn around and thats my bad immerpersonation of christian bales voice, who i didnt even realize was british, such a good actor, im like, wait a minute. You dont talk like that. Its christian. And hes incredibly sweet, really cool. And hes talking to me about going off and doing the movie. Hes like, listen, make sure they put a zipper in that suit, i couldnt take a piss for three movies. So sound advice. Reporter inside the suit a physique painstakingly primed to superhero standards. An absolute necessity given kavilles instagramcally impeccable pecs. That was daunting. I thought, if i have to be in as good of shape as this guy im in trouble. I worked out for almost a year before this movie started to get into becoming a superhero at my advanced age. And that does not come easy. Thats what audiences have come to expect. I look at the adam west batman. I think, god, those guys got away with murder. Reporter affleck should know. He was in his lessmuscular mid30s when he put on the super suit to play tvs man of steel star George Reeves in 2006s hollywoodland. I need to go and have a look at that, maybe i can make fun of ben on the press tour. Reporter batman vs. Superman dawn of justice cues fan boys and girls the director snyder is looking to amass the justice league, dcs allstar array for future avengerstyle films. With this buttkicking super sylph making her bigscreen debut. She with you . I thought she was with you. My most fun day is when my kids came to set and saw us in the costumes. My son was like, is that the real wonder woman . I was like, yes that actually is the real wonder woman youre finally seeing the real one. How about when kids see you . Whats it like when a child comes across and recognizes kind of who you are . Whats that like to be on the other earned of . That is probably the scariest part of this. Because when a child sees you as superman, there is a lot of responsibility there not to mess up. Youre often not expecting it. Its the last minute a parent thrusts their child in front of you and you have to say just the right things. You never know what kids are going to ask, those kids are honest. Reporter audiences expected to flock to its march 25th opening will be honest as well. With snyder looking to show batman vs. Superman is a worthy success tore nolans films. And affleck eager to provide more than just moral support as his director turns 50. Are you going to do anything special for him in honor . Im going to give him a lap dance, yeah. Its the only gift i can be sure he wont give back. And he cant regift. Reporter for nightline im Chris Connelly in los angeles. Next, meet the man behind some of the most successful women on the court. [engine revving] powerful. By design. [tires screeching] charged up. By design. Wfrom your cold flu. You give them a case of the giggles. Tylenol® cold helps relieve your worst cold flu symptoms. You can give them everything youve got. Tylenol® i do everything on the internet. But its kind of slow. My friends said i should get fios because its the fastest. I just downloaded 600 photos in 60 seconds. Thats seriously better. man were out of 2 . I wonder what else could be better around here . man i heard that. Now get our best offer ever. Super fast 100 meg internet, plus tv phone for just 69. 99 a month online with no annual contract. 100 meg speeds at a price this good . Fios can do that. Cable just cant. Switch to better. Switch to fios homecoming . Its awesome. But with the Citizens Bank education refinance loan, it gets even better. You know those people who pay a little extra and get all the legroom in coach . That could be you, if you refinance your Student Loans. I can refinance . Yes, you could replace your current Student Loans with one new loan and save money on interest. Sounds easy it is easy so, treat yourself to something from that inflight magazine. Or save up for a new car, a wedding or a down payment on the home of your dreams. Have a question about how much you can save . Ask a citizen at 18883330245 or visit lightenyourloan. Com and finally tonight, they say practice makes perfect. Spending countless hours on the court with serena williams, this once smalltime tennis coach is now volleying with a new superstar. Hes abcs nick watt. Reporter behind this great womans success, serena williams, there was a man. A shirtless man. Her hitting partner of eight years. Whatever i want, whatever i feel like, i have to put my own needs back 24 7. Just do whatever is best for her. Reporter sascha was a smalltime tennis coach when he got the call. Saturday night, 3 00 a. M. Phone call out of nowhere. I even said no at first. Just because it was a sunday morning, i didnt want to get up in four hours. Reporter he travels over 300 days a year. I havent been in my home since october. I guess the cleaning lady moved in, i dont know. Reporter this week its the bnp open in the california desert where last year he switched courswitch ed horses, went to work with victoria. Does victoria say, put your shirt on, youre drawing a crowd . She did once. It wasnt the crowd, i actually put lotion on because i didnt want to get burned and she said i was too shiny. Reporter whatever is best for her. Hes like the husband my wife wishes i could be. Im nick watt for nightline in indian wells, california. There is an old african proverb that may help explain the bond between player and coach. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. 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