{"id":22500,"date":"2024-02-27T07:36:48","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T12:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=22500"},"modified":"2024-02-27T07:36:49","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T12:36:49","slug":"without-medicare-part-bs-shield-patients-family-owes-81000-for-a-single-air-ambulance-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=22500","title":{"rendered":"Without Medicare Part B\u2019s Shield, Patient\u2019s Family Owes $81,000 for a Single Air-Ambulance Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(By Tony Leys for KFF Health News)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Debra Prichard was a retired factory worker who was careful with her money, including what she spent on medical care, said her daughter, Alicia Wieberg. \u201cShe was the kind of person who didn\u2019t go to the doctor for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That ended last year, when the rural Tennessee resident suffered a devastating stroke and several aneurysms. She twice was rushed from her local hospital to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, 79 miles away, where she was treated by brain specialists. She died Oct. 31 at age 70.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of Prichard\u2019s trips to the Nashville hospital was via helicopter ambulance. Wieberg said she had heard such flights could be pricey, but she didn\u2019t realize how extraordinary the charge would be \u2014 or how her mother\u2019s skimping on Medicare coverage could leave the family on the hook.  Continue reading <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/news\/article\/air-ambulance-flight-surprise-bill-medicare-part-b\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/news\/article\/air-ambulance-flight-surprise-bill-medicare-part-b\/\">here&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"17\" class=\"wp-image-21118\" style=\"width: 150px;\" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image.png\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image.png 500w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image-300x34.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><strong>Notice:<\/strong>&nbsp;The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By Tony Leys for KFF Health News) Debra Prichard was a retired factory worker who was careful with her money,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,56,6,46,39,587],"tags":[313,385,61,214,410,954],"class_list":["post-22500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care-finance","category-medical-debt","category-medicare-general","category-medigap","category-price-transparency","category-rural-health","tag-emergency-care","tag-healthcare-costs","tag-medicare","tag-price-transparency","tag-rural-health","tag-surprise-ambulance-bills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22501,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22500\/revisions\/22501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}