get the highest level of coverage your provider offers. $500,000 USD is not unreasonable when you are potentially talking about evac costs, chamber costs, and ICU costs.
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For a private service Life Flight, yes it can be that expensive.It’s not the chamber cost you need to be concerned with. It’s the helicopter bill. $5,000 just to start the engine and expect a total chopper bill of near $50,000. Yes 4 zeroes. Been there and got the bill.
I have a good friend in Boynton Beach, FL who had a very serious type II DCS hit. He was brought back into Boynton Harbor Marina. I was not there and can't vouch for details. I was told they asked what kind of coverage he had and he said DAN. I was told the response to this was to order the helicopter. The distance from Boynton Beach to West Palm, where the chamber is located, is about 15-20 miles. He was helicoptered to the chamber and waited 3-4 hours for his treatment. He did fine, is back to diving, I did his 1st dive with him post DCS and we did about 10 minutes at 15 feet, he was on oxygen. He dives more typically, though conservatively, today.
This is the closet chamber, just 20-25 minutes by ambulance. He waited hours for his treatment, the helicopter was not indicated, but got paid by DAN. I'm a physician, this seems like taking advantage of the system.This is wh6 there exist loss adjusters.
How long would it have taken an ambulance to cover the distance? Was there an alternative chamber which would have dealt with him more quickly?
Sounds a bit poor.
I have a good friend in Boynton Beach, FL who had a very serious type II DCS hit. He was brought back into Boynton Harbor Marina. I was not there and can't vouch for details. I was told they asked what kind of coverage he had and he said DAN. I was told the response to this was to order the helicopter. The distance from Boynton Beach to West Palm, where the chamber is located, is about 15-20 miles. He was helicoptered to the chamber and waited 3-4 hours for his treatment. He did fine, is back to diving, I did his 1st dive with him post DCS and we did about 10 minutes at 15 feet, he was on oxygen. He dives more typically, though conservatively, today.
Back when I was on volunteer crew (2006-07) at the Catalina Chamber, a basic Table 6 Treatment cost was around 3k to 4k US Dollars, plus another $10k or so if US Coast Guard or LA County Sheriff's helicopter medevac is required to deliver you to the facility.
Here in Southern California -and only in Southern California- the Catalina Recompression Chamber is run by the local civilian municipal government Emergency Medical Service Department of Los Angeles County, and therefore will always treat any diving casualty 24/7 regardless whether the patient has medical insurance or DAN accident coverage, or even the ability to pay -or not. . .
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For a private service Life Flight, yes it can be that expensive.
For US Coast Guard, and Los Angeles County Government EMS Sheriff/Fire Dept Helicopter Medevac, most of the maintenance & operational costs are US Citizen and/or California Los Angeles County Resident tax-payer supported. . . (And again with the caveat -here in Southern California and only in Southern California).