"In the late 1990s, Congress prodded Medicare, the nation's largest insurer, to change its formula for paying for helicopter transports. In 2002, Medicare boosted its reimbursement rates and started paying a 50 percent premium for rural flights. The spigot of new money expanded the market for private operators, who responded by opening scores of free-standing bases miles from hospitals. Medicare payments soared, increasing 434 percent in seven years, to $220 million last year."When will people ever "get" it?
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