Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board AAC Rescue Insurance Change

The topic of this thread is "AAC Rescue Insurance Change". If I have ignored statements here it is because they do not relate to this topic.

The AAC coverage offered seems to apply only when hospitalization is required. Then communication, rescue and transportation services are supplied or contracted for.

There are three reasons why the 'stranger with a cell phone' situation is not relevant to the AAC offered coverage.
1) The AAC provider doesn't tell you to control 'the stranger with a cell phone'. Someone else made that scenario up. The AAC provider does state the method to get their services, ensure that they can coordinate their services with other providers like SAR and ensure coverage of contracted expenses. This requirement that they contract for paid services is common to other service providers such as AAA and many medical plans.
2) The 'stranger with a cell phone' cannot contract for services for you. Even the Inyo SAR won't let someone else trigger their unpaid rescue of you without talking to you unless authorized by the Inyo sheriff office.
3) The SAR provides an unpaid service so there is no issue with covered reimbursement.

Who would want such limited services as the AAC offers? I have suggested people who are traveling where there is no cell service or immediately accessible SAR and people with special medical requirements who may need the special transportation choices offered. These are the topics that are relevant to this thread. These are all situations that involve planning so any discussion of the services as provided will include how you plan.

There is no conflict with the 'stranger with a cell phone' in the topic of this thread. They should go ahead and call. And, if you want a contracted ambulance to drive you to the hospital of your choice under the coverage, someone must call the provider. That's how services work. If you don't want the service, don't buy it. If you are not interested in it on't make up lies about it.

I have long made a practice of recommending this site to friends seeking information. I don't have to be right. I don't have any comment on most topics. I do like answering questions where I have reason to think I have a correct or useful response (I consider humor useful sometimes). I also respond to misleading information that could endanger the people I have recommended this site to. I don't consider things like invalid emergency numbers to be valid opinions that I should respect and let pass.


Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com
http://stores.lulu.com/dbd

Hi I had thought about posting a topic about the rescues we see on Whitney, give a breakdown of the typical three we see and what we do , this is all old information .How it ties with insurance I don't know but then again in the old days to get to be a member in the AAC was different, another topic. Moose was in the store one night and got to see the conditions that tend to start rescues


A.SOMEONE IS ON THE TRAIL THAT WILL NOT MAKE IT DOWN ,I KNOW BECAUSE I AM FASTER AND IT WILL BE DARK VERY SOON .

B. OUR GROUP GOT SEPERATED AND SOMEONE SHOULD DO SOMETHING, I DON'T HAVE THE CAR KEYS AND HOW AM I GOING TO GET TO TOWN.

C. THEY SAID PICK THEM UP AT 5:30 AND IT IS 6:00 CAN YOU CALL A RANGER ?

Stay several hours at the store on any given night during July August.

Now the worst fear we have is a young mother runs into the store and says her child is missing last place the child was sighted ,heading towards the water fall with the rest of the family .

One day on the back side of Whitney a young boy came running up and said he was told to find me I could help, his dad just had a heart attack , I climbed to the ridge line got line of sight and called 760 876 5606 and his dad was picked up at the camp below trailcrest within 30 minutes on the Park service side.


We have falls and other accidents but these are limited to several a year and many years none.


What is critical is the who, what, where, and when, and not third hand . Most days doctors or nurses are around and can give aid, and relay very detailed reports to the dispatch about what is needed, many times this will result in a walk out the next day or that night with hikers coming down.


Last thought is the WHY read the past accidents book published by AAC each year and see the patterns, take some time and plan your trips to address conditions that tend to lead to accidents ,and the need for rescue. I like Boston, took a week vacation there once and looked around. Thanks Doug

Dale,

I think you are missing the most important point here. Yes, services like AAA and HMO medical plans require preauthorization.

But no one calls AAA in an emergency - they call 911. And HMO plans do not require preauthorization before an ambulance can take you to an emergency room.

This is the difference between a service and an insurance plan.

AAC used to offer insurance (however imperfect). Now they don't.

I personally think rescue insurance was a highly valuable aspect of AAC membership, and I sincerely hope AAC leadership will reconsider the decision to abandon it.

Anyone who has searched knows there are few alternatives to AAC's former insurance, and they are very expensive.

Gasp!! One of the "invalid" emergency numbers. What a miracle that someone picked up the phone. It must have been the janitor.

romamandrey

I would certainly prefer to have insurance available instead of the so called rescue service. Hasn't everyone here been agreeing on this issue? I suspect that the people at the AAC would too. but I suspect they have the same problem finding inexpensive insurance everyone else has.

When discussing what the AAC does provide. it is a service. In the Sierra where SAR is available, the only function the AAC coverage provides is an awful lot like the AAA. That's not a good thing, but I think that's how it works out. Yes,it's nothing like insurance. In places where there is no SAR and 911 it's still not like insurance. For one thing, it does provide a replacement for 911 for rescue purposes, which insurance doesn't. Are the AAC's providers any good? I don't know. Most people who use this board are concerned with what happens were there is 911 and SAR so I've tried to have an honest discussion of what it could do here.

Richard

I expect that all of the listed phone numbers work some hours of the day, some days of the week. That does not make it responsible to suggest them to people as numbers to call in an emergency. Late at night on a Saturday when ClamberAbout's someone is "scribbling feebly on a scrap of paper, hunched over, broken, twisted body in pain" do you want the number to be to an office that won't be manned until Monday?

Dale B. Dalrymple

If I am hiking on Olancha Peak and run into trouble, I am going to call the Olancha substation first because they are the closest. If they are not manned, then I will call Bishop. Likewise, if on the Whitney trail, I will try Lone Pine first, then Bishop. If I am on Mt. Baldy in southern California, I will try the Mt. Baldy Volunteer Fire Dept. first (909) 982-1213 because they are the guys that will hoof it up the trail to help me. Knowing that it is a volunteer operation, if no one answers the phone, then I resort to 911. It is possible to program more than one number into a cell phone!

At the risk of being the target of more insults from a certain cantankerous poster on this thread, I am told that the reason some folks prefer to call the local SAR numbers directly when in the Whitney area is that, based on experience it has been observed that in some cases 911 dispatch (Highway Patrol), located in Independence, believe it or not, does not know where "Mt. Whitney", "Whitney Portal", etc. are.

Due to that, time is wasted trying to explain to the dispatcher that, no, you are not on a highway, but you are actually on a mountain, where you are, etc., and please transfer you to <whomever>.

These observations come from people who have lived and climbed in the area for years. Of course, each individual should do as their own conscience dictates.

I am NOT offering any advice. Do whatever you want. I am simply explaining where I heard the call SAR directly concept came from. It wouldn't hurt to put the number in your phone just in case.

The only people I know who give out 911 as the number of choice are the Sheriffs office, but I think they just don't trust people to find better numbers for InyoSAR.

What are the better numbers for InyoSAR?
The InyoSAR site says:
"To contact the team, call (760) 873-7887 or (760) 878-0323. These telephones are manned at all times by the Inyo County Sheriff's dispatcher."
They post on their site for anyone who uses the web. Like this site. Not just for locals who know the office hours.

Does that make them cantankerous?

Dale B. Dalrymple

I still have the 760-876-5606 programmed in my phone - is this outdated info now?

It's a perfectly fine, functional number. It is not a number recommended by InyoSAR as manned 24 hours a day. Take your guidance where you wish.

Dale Dalrymple

Dale,

Thanks for info on phone numbers. This would deserve its own thread, I think - who do you call in an emergency in the various zones of the Sierra?

RE: rescue insurance, we're agreed it's much preferable to this new replacement, the rescue 'service'. Time will tell, I guess, whether this change by the AAC proves popular or a fiasco. Or somewhere in between.

Interestingly, there are decent options to UK citizens seeking rescue insurance, but these same companies won't write policies for US citizens.

romanandrey

According to the area SAR web sites, either sheriffs or rangers are -responsible- for SAR, whether they execute it themselves or not. These are the recommendations from a SAR organization in each of three Sierra counties in quotes. I'd go with them.

Kern
"NOTE: To contact CLMRG in an emergency, please contact the Kern County Sheriff's Office Com Center (661 or 800-861-3110) or the China Lake Police (760-939-3323)."

Inyo
The InyoSAR site says:
"To contact the team, call (760) 873-7887 or (760) 878-0323. These telephones are manned at all times by the Inyo County Sheriff's dispatcher."

Mono
www.monosar.org/ => "In Emergency Dial 911"
(Mono Sheriff Dispatch (760) 932-7549)


911 should work from anywhere, and where ever you are, whether you call 911 or not, you will need to be prepared to explain where the problem is to someone who doesn't know your favorite backcountry area as well as you do. The monosar.org site has a nice presentation of what you should do if you make an emergency call at:
http://www.monosar.org/safety_article_how_to_be_good_rp.html

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com
http://stores.lulu.com/dbd

After reading the entire thread it is hard to determine who peed further.

I'd mentioned it is not easy to find a replacement for the AAC's now-defunct rescue insurance.

Here's something very interesting:

http://findmespot.com/explorespot/servicepricing.aspx

I'm going to try to nab one of these and see how it works over this coming season.