Are Air Ambulances Taking Patients for a Ride?

One of my former posts was Reduce Inappropriate Helicopter Utilization in EMS. In that post we learned the appropriate reasons to use an air medical helicopter in the out-of-hospital setting

In the article from JEMS the Journal of Emergency Medical Services we learned what the appropriate uses for medical helicopters were....
Patient has a significant potential to require high-level life support available from an air medical helicopter, which isn't available by ground transport.

Patient has a significant potential to require a time-critical intervention and an air medical helicopter will deliver the patient to an appropriate facility faster than ground transport.

Patient is located in a geographically isolated area, which would make ground transport impossible or greatly delayed; or local EMS resources are exceeded."

But using HEMS simply because a local ground service is inadequately staffed or funded, or doesn't want to leave their territory "uncovered," isn't an acceptable solution. 

For example, let's say an EMS agency has a patient who's sick and needs to go to a hospital an hour away. The patient doesn't require the speed or care HEMS provides, but because the patient is too sick to stay in the community, they're forced to go by HEMS just to keep the local GEMS unit available.

Find more information on how Air Ambulances are Taking Patients for a Ride For-profit air-ambulance companies too often pick up people who don’t need air transport—and leave families with huge bills that insurance won’t pay

Many times the flight time to Dolan Springs for a medical helicopter is 30 minutes. They then need to land, get a patient update, load the patient, and then have a 30 minute flight time to Vegas...

The drive time from Dolan Springs to KRMC ER in Kingman is only 38 minutes....

If you have serious trauma and need a trauma center there is nothing better for fast transports in some cases that a medical helicopter, but if you don't it could cost you and your family $25,ooo