Good Sam Hospital gives MedJetAssist membership

SUFFERN - Starting this month, heart patients will get more than a bill and stack of instructions when they leave Good Samaritan Hospital.

Now they are also getting free membership in a company that will provide emergency care and medical evacuation anywhere in the world when they travel more than 150 miles from home.

"It's an added patient benefit to extend care far beyond the walls of the hospital," said Sandi Jeanette, community liason for the hospital's cardiac care center.

The hospital has already started to offer the plan to patients leaving the heart center. The arrangement with MedJetAssist, an Alabama-based company, gives patients a one-year membership.

That membership guarantees that the company will send a medically equipped and staffed aircraft to transport any sick or injured person covered by the plan and take that person to whatever hospital he or she chooses at no cost.

"We think it's a terrific expression of confidence in the hospital," said Joe Allen, vice president of community affairs at Active International, a Pearl River marketing and corporate trading company and leading contributor to the heart center at Good Samaritan, which bears its name. "If you have surgery at the Active International Cardiovascular Institute and you need help while you are traveling, they will come and get you."

Under the plan, people can be taken to whatever hospital they choose for medical care if they fall sick or are injured while traveling.

Patients have 60 days after they leave the hospital to activate the plans.

Emergency medical transportation can cost $20,000 domestically and more than $75,000 internationally, according to MedJetAssist.

Active International bought the memberships and donated them to Good Sam.

The hospital started offering the membership to patients who were being discharged from the heart center earlier this month.