The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
This crowdsourced investigation by Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health News dissects and explains your medical bills every month in order to shed light on U.S. health care prices and to help patients learn how to be more active in managing costs.
When medical bills started rolling in, a teacherâs aide in Florida wondered why her insurance suddenly wasnât covering them. The answer? She owed a balance of 5 cents, so her insurer canceled her policy.
Diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, a California man was prescribed a drug that costs thousands of dollars a month. He said he was reassured that the drugmakerâs copay card would cover his share, but after two months, the card was empty.
Do you have a medical bill that is exorbitant, baffling, infuriating, or all of the above? Send it to us and tell us about your experience.
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When medical bills started rolling in, a teacherâs aide in Florida wondered why her insurance suddenly wasnât covering them. The answer? She owed a balance of 5 cents, so her insurer canceled her policy.
A Wisconsin retiree with glaucoma needed her eyes examined. Her Medicare Advantage plan from UnitedHealthcare listed her optometristâs clinic as in-network, but she learned the hard way that a clinic can be in-network and out-of-network at the same time.
With lawmakers still mired over renewing enhanced tax credits for Affordable Care Act plans, much of Washington has turned to culture war issues. Meanwhile, âconfusionâ remains the watchword at HHS as personnel and funding decisions continue to be made and unmade with little notice. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health Newsâ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health Newsâ Elisabeth Rosenthal, who wrote the latest âBill of the Monthâ report.
As the crowdsourced investigative series from Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health News approaches its eighth anniversary, âBill of the Monthâ offers its top takeaways of 2025 to help patients manage, decipher, and even fight their medical bills.
Homemade hot sauce sent a Colorado man to the emergency room with what he called âthe worst pain of my life.â But stomach cramps were only the beginning. Two years later, the bill came.
After her son contracted a serious bacterial infection, an Ohio mother took the toddler to a nearby ER, and staffers there sent him to a childrenâs hospital in an ambulance. With no insurance, the family was hit with a $9,250 bill for the 40-minute ride.
A doctor in Colorado became the patient after an accident totaled her car and sent her to the operating room. The hospital kept her overnight, but her insurer stopped paying after she left the emergency room.
Deborah Buttgereit knew piecing together the broken bone in her elbow would be expensive. But complications the doctor deemed a surprise, midsurgery, drove the total bill tens of thousands of dollars above the original estimate.
A combative Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the U.S. secretary of health and human services, appeared before a Senate committee Thursday, defending his firing of the newly confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as other changes that could limit the availability of vaccines. Meanwhile, Congress has only a few weeks to complete work on annual spending bills to avoid a possible government shutdown and to ward off potentially large increases in premiums for Affordable Care Act health plans. Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, Sarah Karlin-Smith of Pink Sheet, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health Newsâ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health Newsâ Tony Leys, who discusses his âBill of the Monthâ report about a womanâs unfortunate interaction with a bat â and her even more unfortunate interaction with the bill for her rabies prevention treatment.
A kindergartner in Missouri needed eye surgery. Her insurer granted approval for her to see a specialist nearby, yet her parents were confused when they still owed more than $13,000. Then her uncle, a former state senator, reached out to a colleague who contacted the hospital and the insurer.
Health insurance generally doesnât cover treatment for injuries sustained shortly before a customer buys a policy. A Massachusetts woman found that out the hard way.
A family living in Galveston was surprised to be charged thousands of dollars for immunizations for their children. Their insurance plan didnât cover the shots, and the cost of the measles vaccine in particular was more than five times what health officials say it goes for in the private sector.
The Houseâs gigantic tax-and-spending budget reconciliation bill has landed with a thud in the Senate, where lawmakers are divided in their criticism over whether it increases the deficit too much or cuts Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act too deeply. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Officeâs estimate that the bill, if enacted, could increase the ranks of the uninsured by nearly 11 million people over a decade wonât make it an easy sell. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health Newsâ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health Newsâ Arielle Zionts, who reported and wrote the latest âBill of the Monthâ feature, about a Medicaid patient who had an out-of-state emergency.
Federal law says Medicaid must cover out-of-state emergency care. But a Florida man got a five-figure bill after a South Dakota hospital declined to charge his stateâs Medicaid program.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are struggling to reach consensus on cutting the Medicaid program as they search for nearly a trillion dollars in savings over the next decade â as many observers predicted. Meanwhile, turmoil continues at the Department of Health and Human Services, with more controversial cuts and personnel moves, including the sudden nomination of Casey Means, an ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.âs, to become surgeon general. Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Maya Goldman of Axios, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health Newsâ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health Newsâ Lauren Sausser, who co-reported the latest âBill of the Monthâ feature, about an unexpected bill for what seemed like preventive care.
Carmen Aiken of Chicago thought their medical appointment would be covered because the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to pay for a long list of preventive services. But after the appointment, Aiken received a bill for more than $1,400.
After leaving his job to launch his own business, an Illinois man opted for a six-month health insurance plan. When he needed a colonoscopy, he thought it would cover most of the bill. Then he learned his planâs limited benefits would cost him plenty.
A San Francisco man had friends drive him to the hospital after he was hit by a car. Doctors checked him out, then sent him by ambulance to a trauma center â which released him with no further treatment. The ambulance bill? Almost $13,000.
The Affordable Care Act requires most insurance plans to cover preventive care, including many forms of contraception, without cost to patients â but not if theyâre âgrandfatheredâ plans, which predate the law.
In the seventh year of Ńîšóĺú´ŤĂ˝Ňîl Health Newsâ âBill of the Monthâ series, patients shared their most perplexing, vexing, and downright expensive medical bills, and reporters analyzed $800,000 in charges â including more than $370,000 owed by 12 patients and their families.
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