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‘An Arm and a Leg’: Financial Self-Defense School Is Now in Session

By Dan Weissmann

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When you need medical care, it can be a lot like entering a casino — playing for your financial life with the deck stacked against you.

But in this episode, reporter offers insight and tips no dealer will divulge. She got a health care executive to talk honestly — maybe more honestly than he realized — about how his company and others are playing the game when they send patients huge bills.

When , here’s what Llopis-Jepsen found:

Providers who took some of the $175 billion in pandemic-related bailout funds that Congress authorized in March had to promise not to ding patients with surprise bills for COVID-related care. But don’t expect your provider to merely tell you if that rule applies in your case. (That $80,000 bill did not include a footnote that said, “Once insurance pays us, you can forget all about this.”)

If you get a bill for COVID treatment, you can look up the provider yourself. Llopis-Jepsen found a where you can see if your provider took bailout funds.

She also has a for pushing back against your medical bills.

And this — which shows you don’t always owe what you are charged — is packed with insight, too.

Podcast Scheduling Announcement

From here on out, look for financial self-defense lessons from “An Arm and a Leg” every two weeks, instead of occasional seasons. Because it is always a good time to learn how to stand up against unfair medical bills.

“An Arm and a Leg” is a co-production of Kaiser Health News and Public Road Productions.

To keep in touch with “An Arm and a Leg,” . You can also follow the show on Ìý²¹²Ô»åÌý. And if you’ve got stories to tell about the health care system, the producers .

To hear all Kaiser Health News podcasts,Ìýclick here.

And subscribe to “An Arm and a Leg” on ,Ìý,ÌýÌý´Ç°ùÌý.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

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