Local Hui to Organize Flights for Medical Appointments 

By Jack Kiyonaga, Editor 

After years of airport anxiety, Molokai residents on their way to doctors appointments should be able to breathe a little easier. A locally run healthcare hui, Pulama Ka Heke, recently received a Department of Health award specifically to transport residents and providers for medical care. 

“We want to close healthcare gaps,” explained Lani Ozaki, executive director of Pulama Ka Heke. To this end, Pulama Ka Heke will be chartering flights for those with medical appointments off-island, as well as offering flights to Molokai for medical specialists. 

The nearly $2 million award will cover two years of the Essential Rural Medical Air Transport (ERMAT) Pilot Program for both Molokai and Lanai. For Molokai, the program will consist of 24 flights between Molokai and Oahu, and four between Molokai and Maui, per month. 

The plan, explained Ozaki, is to fly providers from Oahu to Molokai in the morning, and then load up the plane with Molokai patients needing to go to Oahu. Then, they will repeat the process in reverse at night. The chartered flights will offer a more reliable travel option, alleviating fears of delay or cancellation for critical medical appointments. 

In recent years, unreliable air transportation has led to fewer Molokai residents being able to attend medical appointments, explained Ozaki, as well as fewer specialists being able to come to Molokai. 

“Some kupuna have just decided not to travel at all because of the uncertainty,” she said. 

For Molokai, Pulama Ka Heke will be chartering two eight-seater planes from Pacific Air Charters. For Lanai, Pulama Ka Heke will be partnering with Lanai Kina‘ole to supply a broad array of transportation options including Lanai Air, Trans Air, Mokulele and the Expeditions Ferry. 

Pulama Ka Heke will be using referrals from primary care physicians to book passengers for the flights. The process will depend on the passenger’s insurance for particulars in upfront costs and reimbursements. But the goal, explained Ozaki, is specifically to service those with Medicare or Medicaid, which do not have travel benefits as part of their insurance plans. 

“That’s going to be our priority,” she said. 

The ERMAT Pilot Program is the first of its kind statewide. When Pulama Ka Heke was creating a proposal for the award, there were fears that the award would go to an off-island airline instead of a local group. 

“I was worried,” said Ozaki, explaining that Pulama Ka Heke was the only non-airline entity to apply. “I made sure we submitted a really robust proposal.” 

As a local nonprofit, Ozaki believes that Pulama Ka Heke is in a unique position to understand the challenges Molokai residents have been facing to receive medical care. The nonprofit was founded on Molokai in 2022 following the deaths of physicians Aluli and Thomas as well as the increase in suicides on island, according to Stacy Helm Crivello, one of the founders.  

Pulama Ka Heke sought to answer the question “how can we work with health providers to strengthen the services that we have,” explained Helm Crivello. 

The local nonprofit is staffed with personnel from Molokai who have first-hand knowledge of how difficult it can be to access healthcare. 

“We’re on Molokai, we’re from here, and we understand the struggles,” Ozaki said. “We know because we’ve experienced them ourselves.”

While talk of government support for Molokai air travel has been discussed previously, it took some serious political work for the project to be realized, explained Helm Crivello. 

“We’re [grateful] for…our state senator and state legislature,” said Helm Crivello. “Nothing was going to happen without political power.” 

The ERMAT award first began as a bill submitted by Molokai’s State Representative Mahina Poepoe last year. While the bill died, the money for the award was later added to the budget anyway. 

“I’m really excited that it’s at the point it is today,” said Poepoe. “To have that all happen in one year, I think that’s a pretty successful outcome.”

Long-term, the hope is that the pilot program will be a demonstrable success and the Department of Health will continue its budget as a yearly line item, explained Poepoe. 

“I think our community is just open to trying anything that could bring relief,” she said. “It’s not too complicated of a concept – it’s just trying to bring in alternative plane resources and giving an incentive to do that.”

Pulama Ka Heke is working with the Offices of Tylor Tanaka to build out their website currently, and plans on having operational flights as early as June.