As the full story says, the NTSB has no enforcement powers over medical transport companies, but it does have influence with Congress.

What’s being proposed here is, in medical jargon, called P4P (Pay for Performance).

There is no excuse for medical transport companies to balk at the expenses associated with making their helicopters safer.

• There are more of medical choppers in the air, which means more flights need the same air space.

• There have been an unprecedented number of accidents in 2008.

• This accidents risk both the lives of ill patients and their own crews.

Wall Street Journal

“Federal safety watchdogs, alarmed by last year’s spike in medical helicopter crashes, proposed on Tuesday a new approach that would link government payments for air ambulance services to safety practices.

“The goal of the National Transportation Safety Board’s proposal is to give hospitals and other air ambulance operators a financial incentive to outfit medical helicopters with collision-avoidance systems and other pricey technologies, and to invest more in pilot training. The board is also drafting recommendations to make reimbursement for transporting Medicare patients contingent on complying with certain nationwide safety standards.”

“The NTSB’s latest effort comes after emergency medical chopper accidents claimed 29 lives in 2008, according to NTSB data. That was the deadliest year for the industry, with fatalities several times higher than the two preceding years, and prompted industry leaders and regulators to move away from reliance on voluntary compliance.” (Emphasis added)

Source: Wall Street Journal, September 2, 2009