Year One Of KHN’s ‘Bill Of The Month’: A Kaleidoscope Of Financial Challenges

(Published by Kaiser Health News)

In 2018, KHN and NPR launched “Bill of the Month,” a crowdsourced investigation in which we dissect, investigate and explain medical bills you send us. In telling the story behind one patient’s bill each month, our goal is to understand the genesis of the often exorbitant and baffling charges that pervade the American medical system. But also, we aim to offer ideas for patients and policymakers about how they might redress common patient situations that are frustrating and downright unaffordable. So far, we’ve examined bills for conditions as minor as toenail fungus (a $1,500-per-month topical medicine) and as major as a “widow-maker” heart attack ($109,000 after insurance). We’ve looked at bills for simple exams ($18,000 for a urine test) and ambulance rides ($57,000 for an air ambulance). Many of the bills miraculously get resolved once our reports come out.  Continue reading article here…

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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