State health regulators are one step closer to launching a pilot program to provide medical flights to Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi residents who often struggle to access care.
The Hawaiʻi Department of Health awarded contracts to Pulama Ka Heke, a Molokaʻi nonprofit health care hui, and Lānaʻi Kinaole, a Lānaʻi home health care agency, to run the Essential Rural Medical Air Transport pilot program. State lawmakers last year appropriated $2 million to fund the program, which aims to help residents reach big city medical centers in Honolulu and on Maui.
Residents of Molokai and Lanai rely on airline travel for emergency and even routine medical care. Boarding a plane is essential to see a dermatologist or cardiologist. Lanai residents must also fly for colonoscopies, mammograms, any kind of surgery — even an ankle fracture.
Women can’t give birth on Lanai, a 140-square mile isle with roughly 3,000 residents. On Molokai, which has a population of about 7,000 residents, only low-risk patients who forgo an epidural can deliver a child…