Air Ambulance SnapShot

Air ambulances are used to transport patients by helicopter or airplane in critical and life-threatening situations. This Snapshot of Washington State Air Ambulance Services was created using the Washington All-Payer Health Care Claims Database (WA-APCD), the state’s most complete source of medical insurance data. 

It is a quick and easy way to explore how much air ambulance services cost, whose providing them, and how they are being consumed across the state. Using the Snapshot’s interactive dashboard, you can explore the number of services by county, provider member counts and cost, and see which diagnoses occur most often.

Terms

Fixed Wing: Air ambulances powered by piston, turboprop, or jet engines (e.g., airplanes). Typically used for long-range distances.

Rotary: Air ambulances powered by rotating blades (e.g., helicopters). Typically used for short-range distances.

Average Total Allowed Amount: The average of the amounts that plans paid for a service.    

Methods

Medical claim lines with the following HCPCS codes were identified:

Helicopter

A0431: Ambulance service, conventional air services, transport, one way (rotary wing).

A0436: Rotary wing air mileage, per statute mile.

Airplane

A0430: Ambulance service, conventional air services, transport, one way (fixed wing).

A0435: Fixed wing air mileage, per statute mile.

More information

Claim lines were restricted to rendering internal provider IDs whose NPIs matched an updated list of 204 distinct air ambulance provider NPIs given to Onpoint by WA OIC in 2026. In addition, one Airlift Northwest NPI that was not listed on the air ambulance provider list but had been included on that list previously (1912424250 for Airlift Northwest) was added. Take-off and mileage HCPCS codes were rolled up by claim identifiers into one row. Allowed amount was calculated as the sum of each claim’s paid amount, copay amount, coinsurance amount, deductible amount. There was no adjustment for inflation.

The principal diagnosis on the claim line was used to categorize the most frequent diagnosis count by county, and to identify across the counties the top ten diagnoses for air ambulance services. ZIP code from the medical claim line was used to identify the county in which the transport episode took place. Results were stratified by year of first service date. Results and allowed amounts for counts <10 were suppressed (converted to 0 in final data file).