SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. - There's a growing trend among municipalities in Marion County to join a program that covers residents for any costs of an emergency air transport that insurance doesn't pay.
Now, the South Pittsburg City Commission is considering a membership in the program, too.
At the board's February meeting, Linda Robinson, a membership sales manager with AirMedCare, said "a community plan" for all households in the town could be purchased to cover residents as long as the emergency flight takes place inside the county lines.
"As long as you are a property owner and pay some type of tax to the city, that determines whether or not you're a city resident," Jimmy Morse, another AirMedCare membership sales manager, said.
Renters are a "gray area," he said, but if those tenants are paying some type of utility bill to the town each month, they are still covered under the plan.
"The biggest thing is what address your insurance goes to," Morse said.
South Pittsburg would have to pay an estimated $12,406 per year for a citywide membership, but the actual cost wouldn't be known until the municipal site plan is completed.
Nearby Kimball, Tenn., Whitwell, Tenn., and Jasper, Tenn., have all purchased the site plans in recent years.
"Some of the other cities in Marion County have found this to be beneficial for their residents to not have that out-of-pocket cost," Robinson said.
In just the past year, Kimball Mayor Rex Pesnell said at least three of that town's residents have been flown to a trauma center, and the costs were completely covered through the membership.
Morse said he got a phone call last fall from the spouse of a person who had been flown out of Jasper and didn't know the town had purchased the coverage.
"And this person broke down on the phone and was so appreciative that their government had done that for them," he said. "That would have been such a financial hardship."
Morse said the remaining cost to that family after insurance would have been around $20,000.
"Just one flight, usually, wipes out the cost of the actual site plan for the community," he said.
The nationwide average cost of an emergency flight is between $25,000 and $28,000, Morse said, while insurance only pays about $10,000 of that.
If South Pittsburg purchases a membership, residents would be able to sign up as individual households for a full membership throughout the 32-state AirMedCare Network at a reduced rate of $35 per year.
Right now, any household anywhere can get a full membership in the program for $65 per year.
City leaders in South Pittsburg did not indicate whether or not they support purchasing a site plan or when a decision could be made, but they will examine the proposal.
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.