Air ambulance companies claim Wyoming owes them $2 million as state fights to cap fees
CHEYENNE — The state of Wyoming is scrambling to try to block a federal judge’s ruling that the state may not regulate how much air ambulance companies charge for transporting workers who are injured on the job.
The state is asking a federal appeals court in Denver to block this summer’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne that federal law prohibits state regulation of air ambulance companies. The companies are due to file a response later this week.
Health care providers, including ambulance services, generally submit bills for treating Wyoming workers injured on the job to the state’s workers’ compensation program. A state law specifies that it’s up to the director of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Division to determine reasonable charges for the flights.
But Johnson ruled that a federal law Congress passed in the 1970s specified that states may not enact or enforce laws or regulations regarding price, routes or service of air carriers. He ruled Wyoming’s attempt to regulate air ambulance companies violated that federal law and ordered the state to pay the rates that the air ambulance companies charge.
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