An uninsured employer tried to contest charges that he was left to pay out-of-pocket after one of his employees was injured and had to be transported to the hospital by Life-Flight. The employer said the flight was not a reasonable treatment procedure and was an excessive expense given the injury.

Kevin Stokes owns a farm in Idaho and employed Sohar Chavez as an irrigator, part-time. In September of 2012, the claimant’s hand slipped into a chain on the motor of an irrigation line as he was moving it. He partially amputated his little finger, and drove himself to the home of an off-duty police officer who lived near where Chavez was working on the farm. He called 911 and when help arrived they determined that Chavez was in serious pain but the finger might be saved. The paramedics called a Life Flight to take him to St. Alphonsus Medical Center in Boise, where it turned out that his finger could not be reattached and he had his finger partially amputated.

Life Flight sent Chavez a bill for $21,201 for his transportation, which he passed on to his employer. The employer paid the rest of the medical bills even though he did not have workers’ comp insurance, but he drew the line at the Life Flight bill. He said there was a hospital about 15 minutes away from the site of the accident and it seemed unnecessary to take a helicopter to another hospital farther away.

The Idaho Industrial Commission weighed in favor of the employee, though there was discussion of whether or not the treatment was reasonable. The Commission said that it was really the call of the physician and if the physician decided the treatment was required, it should be allowable. When Stokes appealed to the state’s Supreme Court, they affirmed. The paramedics at the scene were the “physicians” who were able to make the call. They thought that taking a Life Flight to the St. Alphonsus center in Boise was the best chance they had at saving his finger, and if they thought the Life Flight was necessary and reasonable then it stands and the employer is responsible.