bill of the month

'Bill of the Month': The series that dissects and slashes medical bills

5:00am December 20, 2024

by A Martínez

Since 2018, readers and listeners sent KFF Health News-NPR's "Bill of the Month" thousands of questionable bills. Our crowdsourced investigation paved the way for landmark legislation and highlighted cost-saving strategies for all patients

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Health & Safety

It’s called an urgent care emergency center — but which is it?

10:36am June 20, 2024

Suffering stomach pain, a Dallas man visited his local urgent care clinic — or so he thought, until he got a bill 10 times what he’d expected.

After her pregnancy, Danielle Laskey discovered the hospital was out of network for her health plan, and her insurer said surprise-billing laws protecting patients from big out-of-network bills for emergency care did not apply

A surprise-billing law loophole? Her pregnancy led to a six-figure hospital bill

1:33pm February 28, 2023

by Harris Meyer

Billing experts and lawmakers are playing catch-up as providers get around new consumer protections, leaving patients like Danielle Laskey of Washington state with big bills for emergency care.

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Paul Davis is a retired physician in Findlay, Ohio, who gets weekly treatments of the drug Kimmtrak to help stave off the progression of his rare cancer — uveal melanoma. He worries the accumulating cost of the drug — nearly $50,000/week if he has to pay it out of pocket — could saddle his family with crushing medical debt after he's gone.

Nearly $50,000 a week for a cancer drug? A man worries about bankrupting his family

5:00am February 14, 2023

by Fred Schulte

Medicare suddenly stopped paying for the pricey drug that prolongs his life. As he waits for an appeal, this retired physician wonders if he should give up treatment to spare his family the cost.

Brenna Kearney plays with her daughter, Joey, at home in Chicago. When Kearney was pregnant, she developed a rare type of preeclampsia and had to undergo an emergency cesarean section. Joey was discharged after a 36-day stay in the NICU.

Health & Safety

A baby spent 36 days at an in-network hospital. Why did her parents get a huge bill?

5:07pm January 30, 2023

by Harris Meyer

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.

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In 2013, Grace E. Elliott spent a night in a hospital in Florida for a kidney infection that was treated with antibiotics. Eight years later, she got a large bill from the health system that bought the hospital. This bill was for an unrelated surgical procedure she didn't need and never received. It was a case of mistaken identity, she knew, but proving that wasn't easy.

The case of the two Grace Elliotts: a medical bill mystery

5:11am December 21, 2022

by Mark Kreidler

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.

Bennett Markow looks to his big brother, Eli (right), during a family visit at UC Davis Children's Hospital in Sacramento. Bennett was born four months early, in November 2020.

The heartbreak and cost of losing a baby in America

9:50am September 22, 2022

by Lauren Weber

Even after their babies died, hospital bills kept coming. These parents of fragile, very sick infants faced exorbitant bills — though they had insurance. "The process was just so heartless," one says.

Preventive care should be free to patients under the Affordable Care Act, but Elizabeth Melville of Sunapee, NH., was charged $2,185 for a colonoscopy in 2021.

Health & Safety

Cancer screenings like colonoscopies are supposed to be free. Hers cost $2,185

5:28pm May 31, 2022

by Michelle Andrews

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.

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Even when IVF is covered by insurance, high bills, surprises and hassles abound

5:00am May 04, 2022

by Phil Galewitz

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.

Claudia and Jesús Fierro of Yuma, Ariz., review their medical bills. They pay $1,000 a month for health insurance yet still owed more than $7,000 after two episodes of care at the local hospital.

Hit with $7,146 for two hospital bills, a family sought health care in Mexico

5:13am April 27, 2022

by Paula Andalo

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.