The Union County Quorum Court agreed last month to maintain employees' Survival Flight insurance despite a rate increase.
During the regular May meeting, District 6 Justice of the Peace Cecil Polk, who chairs the body's Public Service Committee, said the cost to insure a county employee and their family through Survival Flight would be increasing from $40 to $60 this year.
Polk sought other JPs approval to continue the coverage.
JPs first agreed to add the health benefit to employees' coverage plans in 2020, just a few months after Survival Flight began operating a base in El Dorado at the Medical Center of South Arkansas. Polk said in 2020 and 2021, the benefit cost the county $4,760 and $4,880, respectively.
"So they're going to $60 per employee -- that includes family -- for a total of $7,200 a year," Polk said last month. "My personal opinion... even though it's going up, it's beneficial, because if we have one employee or their family being airlifted to Little Rock or wherever then it's going to pay for itself."
Survival Flight operates air ambulance bases throughout Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, along with a handful of bases in Alabama and one in Florida and Illinois, according to the company's website.
Survival Flight's helicopters are outfitted with state of the art emergency medical service (EMS) equipment and are larger, have higher weight capacities and higher flight speeds than what most medical evacuation companies offer, according to previous News-Times reporting.
According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the median cost of air ambulance services is estimated to cost between $36,000 and $40,000.
Polk explained last month that if a county worker or their family member uses the Survival Flight service, their health insurance will be billed first; anything that isn't covered by that will be covered by Survival Flight.
"We've got a very, very rich plan for our employees, and so the out of pocket is not much, and it goes back to (Survival) Flight and they pick up all that, so the employee is not out a dime," he said.
Present JPs voted unanimously to continue providing the Survival Flight insurance to county workers.