After emergency surgery, an American expatriate now carries the baggage of a five-figure bill. Costs for medical care in the U.S. can be two to three times the rates in other developed countries.
Doctors rushed a pregnant woman to a surgeon who charged thousands upfront just to see her. The case reveals a gap in medical billing protections for those with rare, specialized conditions.
A Florida woman tried to dispute an emergency room bill, but the hospital and collection agency refused to talk to her — because it was her child's name on the bill, not hers.
A family had more than $12,000 in medical bills they couldn't explain after their baby was delivered early. It turns out the doctors who cared for her worked at a different, out-of-network hospital.
A health system charged a woman for a shoulder replacement she didn't need and hadn't received. She didn't receive the care, but she did receive the bill — and some medical records of a stranger.
Some doctors and medical practices voluntarily give rebates on a bill if an injury occurs during a procedure, while others will not, a medical ethicist says. Here's how patients can respond.
Russell Cook expected a quick, inexpensive visit to an urgent care center for his daughter after a car wreck. She wasn't badly hurt, but they were sent to an emergency room — for a much larger bill.
A hospital's cost calculator said her procedure would be $1,400 for patients without insurance. Instead, the bill was almost $18,000 and, her part was more than $5,000 — the balance of her deductible.
Preventive care, like screening colonoscopies, is supposed to be free of charge to patients under the Affordable Care Act. But some hospitals haven't gotten the memo.
Only 15 states require insurance to cover in vitro fertilization, a pricey path to parenthood. But expensive procedures and drugs can lead to unexpected bills even for the fortunate who are insured.
A dad's COVID-19 and a mom's fainting spell cost thousands, so when their son dislocated his shoulder, they drove him to Mexicali, where facilities rival those in the U.S., and had him treated for $5.
Diagnosed with aggressive leukemia while on a trip to Wyoming, a man thought his insurance would cover an air ambulance ride home to North Carolina. Instead, he got hit with an astronomical bill.
An insurer refused to pay bills related to the premature birth of the Bull family's twins because it said their delivery wasn't an emergency and their stays in the NICU weren't medically necessary.
A toddler burned his hand on the stove. The pediatrician told mom over the phone to take him to the emergency room. But after a long wait for a doctor who never showed, they left. Then the bill came.
