Private-equity owned companies account for the majority of Medicare spending on air ambulance services and charge an average of more than seven times the Medicare reimbursement rate, which leads to expensive surprise medical bills, according to an analysis by the USC-Brookings Schaffer Initiative. Companies owned by two private equity firms accounted for 64% of Medicare market for air ambulance charges and had a standard average charge of $48,250, 7.2 times more than Medicare pays. As much as 40% of helicopter...