After Susannah Reed-McCullough’s husband died in 2018, she and their younger daughters continued to obtain medical insurance via his job as a firefighter in Maryland.
Then, in 2024, she bought an sudden medical invoice: $377 for a checkup for one in all her kids the earlier fall. Reed-McCullough stated she known as the physician’s billing division and discovered the insurance coverage firm had dropped the youngsters’s protection.
The drop turned out to be a mistake. However Reed-McCullough stated she was pressured to behave because the go-between for her late husband’s human assets division and their insurer — all whereas frightened about her daughters’ being uninsured.
On this installment of InvestigateTV and KFF Well being Information’ “Pricey Care” sequence, Caresse Jackman, InvestigateTV’s nationwide client investigative reporter, explores how administrative errors can depart sufferers on the hook for medical payments they shouldn’t owe, typically with few choices to appropriate an issue they didn’t create.
Jackman interviewed Elisabeth Rosenthal, senior contributing editor at KFF Well being Information, who stated unintended protection drops are “a typical drawback” in want of consideration from state regulators.
“Individuals make errors, programs make errors, and they need to be held liable for them, not the affected person,” Rosenthal stated.
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is among the core working packages at KFF—an impartial supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Be taught extra about KFF.
USE OUR CONTENT
This story might be republished totally free (particulars).
We encourage organizations to republish our content material, freed from cost. Right here’s what we ask:
You could credit score us as the unique writer, with a hyperlink to our kffhealthnews.org website. If doable, please embrace the unique creator(s) and KFF Well being Information” within the byline. Please protect the hyperlinks within the story.
It’s essential to notice, not every thing on kffhealthnews.org is out there for republishing. If a narrative is labeled “All Rights Reserved,” we can not grant permission to republish that merchandise.
Have questions? Tell us at KHNHelp@kff.org
