is "nightline." >> tonight, emergency rescues from air ambulances. they may have saved your life. but leave you with sky-high with an industry free to set any price, some patients facing hefty debts, even lawsuits, after they've recovered. >> why don't you put the price ur brian ross investigates. >> i can get back with you on that. >> you don't know the answer? >> no, i don't. plus "batman versus why are the good guys going after each other? behind the scenes as ben affleck and henry cavill face off as the two mostf all-time.

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evening. thank you for joining us. millions of americans are rushed to the hospital every year. 400,000 of them transpohelicopter. many times it's a life or death

but the service often comes with a sky-high price tag. tonight abc'sative correspondent brian ross examines the big business of air ambulances.g about very critically injured patients. traumas, strokes, heart attacks. >> reporter: emergency workers call it the golden crucial 60 minutes to get medical care for a patient facing death. >> failure to get them to the care probablygoing to survive. >> reporter: that urgent need to beat the golden hour clock that is spawned a nationwide fleet of, saving countless lives. but our "nightline" investigation conduct the with abc stations across the country also found it has left many of the very people it saved facingnancial turmoil with bills as high as $40,000 or $50,000 for a short flight. >> would you call this price gouging? >> some of it is.ion that some of

>> reporter: behind those heart-warming stories of lives saved is a hard-edged airstry free to set any price it want. >> takes advantage of people at a very vulnerable moment. >> reporter: loren larson, a helicopter pilot he was stunned at the cost of the quick flight for his daughter after she was injured in a serious offroad atv accident. miles. after insurance and a failed negotiation, he still owes $36,000.oing to cripple us financially. >> reporter: he is not alone. we found hundreds of families. >> i'm it. it's very stressful worrying about it. >> reporter: being sued. >> i don't have the money to give them. so my wife and my son and myself being homeless. >> reporter: hounded by debt collectors. >> i look, i see the number, i

want toter: human bills their insurance won't cover. >> i feel i can never dig out. >> reporter: some forced into bankruptcy. one after another patients told us howen taken for a ride in more ways than one. >> i wasn't asked if i wanted to go on the helicopter. i didn't think it would >> reporter: 91-year-old warren lowe and his wife ethel were on their way to church in virginia when an uninsured driver slammed >> what's your emergency? >> car wreck on 89. several people hurt. >> reporter: lowe's leg was shattered and doctors at wanted him sent to a trauma center 55 miles away. >> didn't nobody tell me nothing. they just took me, put me in t >> reporter: the cost, $47,000 for a 20-minute helicopter ride. >> i couldn't believe it when we looked at it. $47,000?iculous. >> reporter: lowe's bill came

ambulance companies with more than 370 helicopters operating in 48 states. the publicly traded air methods posted profits last year of m$100 million. even as insurance companies complained their bills were excessive. its ceo, aaron todd, earned almost $500 million>> aircraft hike this serves about a 150-mile radius. >> reporter: but he sent someone else to answer our questions at one of their bases in rural >> we serve 82 million rural americans across the country who would not have access to trauma care within the critical hour, what's called the golden reporter: air methods vice president paul webster said the company is willing to lower its bill for those who can prove financial hardship. he says the real problem companies and medicare and medicaid won't cover the full cost of helicopter flights. >> if everybody paid their fair share, charge for this service would be?

>> you're shifting the cost to people who have insurance, and when their insurance doesn't pay, you go after other choice is -- >> you put them into bankruptcy? >> the other choice is this service and this access goes away.s not, say the people who run a nonprofit air ambulance service, set up by five hospitals in the dallas area. care flight. >> so we're going to this brown building here -- >> reporter: the company with its own fleet of state-of-the-art aircraft -- >> this is an $8 million orter: charges substantially less and does not use debt collectors to go after its patients. >> how could you be absolutely that person's life and then turn around and sue them? because they can't pay a bill? >> the ceo of care flight, jim schwartz, says air methods has reputation as an aggressive bottom-line company trying to please its wall street investors.

for-profit company acts like ampany. you raise the price as high as you can, as fast as you can. and you try to collect as much as you can and use whatever tactics youorter: jean medina got a $35,000 bill from air methods after her teenage daughter, sofia, on aloped complications from a tonsillectomy. >> the surgery itself was $16,000. the helicopter was $35,000. it seems a crazy amount of >> reporter: after insurance and a protracted back and forth, she still owes $17,000. and medina questions whether her daughter's 37-milerip was necessary. it took almost an hour for the helicopter just to arrive and load, and she was able to drive the distance in almost the same amount of time. >> i left a few minutes before and ended up arriving at the hospital about five minutes after they did. >> reporter: air methods said its flight crews provide medical care that a groundt. >> the same thing could not have been accomplished on the ground.

that she receives inside the helicopter. >> reporter: according to the flight logs for medina's, no extraordinary treatments were necessary. >> if the patient really isn't time sensitive, we can take them by ground and we're a 're not going to try to figure out the most expensive way to do it. >> reporter: the decision to call in a helicopter ambulance is made by attending doctors. but the families, like thekentucky, are the ones on the hook for the cost. warren larson says he was being treated himself, given morphine, when he signed this air methods for his daughter's medevac trip which in small print made him personally and fully responsible for the bill. >> they said, don't, it's just a standard form, just give us permission to transport your daughter. >> reporter: nowhere on the standard form does it inform the patient or >> why don't you put the price here? >> i can get back with you on the vice president in charge of this.

why don't you put the price here so people know what they're signing on for? >> sure, it's a question that iou don't know the answer? >> no, i don't. >> never been raised before? >> no, it has not. >> reporter: state insurance regulators say they have been in the prices or tactics air methods and other helicopter ambulance services because of a loophole in the federal law. al redner is the insuranceoner in maryland. >> when the federal government deregulated the airlines industry,licopter companies were part of that. >> as if they're major air carriers? >> that's right. >> you can't regulate them because of faa rules? > they can get away with these charges, charge whatever they want? >> they can, they can. >> reporter: of course, many of the air methods customers praise by the company, including kim downs whose daughter suffered life-threatening injuries in an

>> but i was told theyt she was dead. yeah. that it was extreme. >> reporter: and recently showed up to thank the flight ldn't be here today if it wasn't for them. truly. >> reporter: the bill was $55,000. but her insurance covered it he never had to face the air methods tactics that so many others say they have had to suffer through. >> they're asking for help. they're threatening their life savings or anything else. lawsuit. they're asking you to help save their life. >> reporter: for "nightline," th new york. >> join the conversation on our "nightline" facebook page. next, it's a showdown in the most epic all-time. ben affleck's batman versus henry cavill's superman. we're behind thetar cast. il liqui-gels, you'll ask

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> they are the good guys of the comic book world. for the first time ever, clark kent and bruce wayne are suiting up for the big screen together, facingc battle that might become an epic partnership. chris connelly goes behind the scenes with ben affleck and henry cavill in perman: dawn the justice." >> reporter: he may be the new man in the bat suit. with major bat boots ton affleck says he's long been drawn to the departments of the dark knight.

superhero in a way because human. he's the most like us. he can be kind of broken. which is really fascinating to be coupled with all this heroic stuff. movie pits the two mightiest icons of the dc comics universe against each other. >> stay down! you'd be dead already! >> reporter: "batman vs. superman" is the -- wait, what? of movie counter intuitive. you think, a, they're both good guys. and b, how could batman fight is an alien and way stronger and invulnerable? >> if you'd ra have a head to head, batman vs. superman w who wins. >> reporter: "batman vs. superman" uses multiple story strains jesse isenberg's llian to put the

starting with a reprise of the end of "man of steel" and itsf the metropolis. >> you do have to realize that amage which happens and someone's going to get blamed. that someone happened to be superman. >> it was important to sort of see that, yeah, there's ould be amazing if bruce wayne witnessed that. >> he has the power to wipe out the entire human e there's even a 1% chance he's an enemy we have to take it as absolute certainty and we have to destroy him. >> reporter: he takes on 32-year-old superman clark kent. affleck at 43 is the oldest ever to be past at bruce wayne. >> i wanted a batman that had been years. he had the experiences that we know sort of collectively in pop culture. i felt had a chance against superman.

>> i wanted to be this one of these movies that was ballsy ao say. i wanted to do a movie my kids would think it's cool. my son thinks it's cool. >> reporter: samuel, his ffleck to meet the actor who excelled in the three batman epics who elevated the genre and grossed more than stick. >> i was in literally a costume shop. not only that but my son, really into batman, wanted a batman costume. i was in the batman hear, ben, is that you? i turn around and that's my bad immerse personation of christian bale's voice, who i didn't even realize was british, such a good, wait a minute. you don't talk like that. it's christian. and he's incredibly sweet, really cool. an about going off and doing the movie. he's like, listen, make sure they put a zipper in that suit, i couldn't take a piss for three

>> reporter: inside the suit a physique painstakingly primed to superhero standards. an absolute necessity givens instagramcally impeccable pecs. >> that was daunting. i thought, if i have to be in as good of shape as this guy i'm in trouble. i worked out for almost ahis movie started to get into becoming a superhero at my advanced age. and that does not come easy. have come to expect. the adam west batman. i think, god, those guys got away with murder. >> reporter: affleck should know. he was in his less-muscular put on the super suit to play tv's man of steel star george reeves in ." >> i need to go and have a look

ben on the press tour. >> reporter: "batman vs.: dawn of justice" cues fan boys and girls the director snyder is looking to amass the justice league, dc's all-starure avenger-style films. with this butt-kicking super sylph makt. >> she with you? was with you. >> my most fun day is when my kids came to set and saw us in the costumes. my son was like,real wonder woman? i was like, yes! that actually is the real wonder woman! you're finally seeing the real ut when kids see you? what's it like when a child comes across and recognizes kind of who you are? what's that like to be on the other earned of? >> that is probably thef this. because when a child sees you as superman, there is a lot of

you're often not expecting it. it's the last minute a thrusts their child in front of you and you have to say just the right things. you never know what kids are going to ask, those kids are honest. >> reporter: audienceslock to its march 25th opening will be honest as well. with snyder looking to show "batman vs. superman" is a nolan's films. and affleck eager to provide more than just moral support as his director turns 50. to do anything special for him in honor? >> i'm going to give him a lap dance, yeah. it's the only gift i can be sure he won't give back.an't regift. >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm chris connelly in los angeles. next, meet the man behindost successful

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and finally tonight, they say practice makes perfect. spending countless hours on the court with serena williams, this once small-time tennis volleying with a new superstar. he's abc's nick watt. >> reporter: behind this great woman's ms, there was a man. a shirtless man. her hitting partner of eight years. >> whatever i want, whatever i feel like, i have toeds back 24/7.

>> reporter: sascha was anis coach when he got the call. >> saturday night, 3:00 a.m. phone call out of nowhere. i even said no at first. just because it was a sunday i didn't want to get up in four hours. >> reporter: he travels over 300 days a year. >> i haven't been in my home since october. i guess the in, i don't know. >> reporter: this week it's the bnp open in the california desert where last year hee switch ed horses, went to work with victoria. >> does victoria say, put your shirt on, you're drawing a she did once. it wasn't the crowd, i actually put lotion on because i didn't want to get burned and she said i was too shiny. >> reporter: whatever is best for her.usband my wife wishes i could be. i'm nick watt for "nightline" in indian wells, california. >> there is an old african y help explain the bond between player and coach.

alone. if you want to go far, go together. thank you for watching abc "good morning america" tomorrow. as always we're online at , america. ve, we let you compare our progressive direct rate... great deals for reals! ...and our competitors' rates side-by-side, so you know you're getting a great deal. saving the moolah. [ chuckles ] as you can see,ssive isn't the lowest. not always the lowest! jamie. what are you doing? -i'm being your hype man. not right now. you said i was gonna be the hype man. no, we said we wouldn't do it. were talking about savings. i liked his way. cha-ching! talking about

ing that moneeeey! savings worth the hype. now that's progressive. t live, it's "comics unleashed" with your host byron allen. tonight byron welcomes lamont ferguson. and now, a man so cool