Bill of the Month

 

This crowdsourced investigation by KFF 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.

Do you have a medical bill that you’d like us to see and scrutinize? Submit it here and tell us the story behind it.

Insured But Still In Debt: 5 Jobs Pulling In $100K A Year No Match For Medical Bills

An Arizona couple played by the rules and bought employer-provided health insurance. But after they had a baby this year, their out-of-pocket hospital costs and doctors’ bills climbed to more than $12,000 — and medical debt now threatens their new family.

Massachusetts Stroke Patient Receives ‘Outrageous’ $474,725 Medical Flight Bill

After a 34-year-old woman suffered a stroke in Kansas, doctors there arranged for her to be transferred to a Boston hospital, via an Angel MedFlight Learjet. The woman and her father believed the cost of the medical flight would be covered by her private insurance. Then they got the bill.

After Her Skiing Accident, An Uphill Battle Over Snowballing Bills

She took a bad fall on the slopes and her surgeon used a metal plate to put the splintered bones of her leg back together. When that device failed less than four months later, she and her insurer had to pay full price for the replacement plate.

Watch: Why Infusion Drugs Come With Sticker Shock

The story of an Ohio mom who faced an outrageous bill for a new medicine for multiple sclerosis is the latest installment in the “Bill of the Month” series, an ongoing crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR.

Chronically Ill, Traumatically Billed: The $123,000 Medicine For MS

Shereese Hickson’s doctor wanted her to try the infusion drug Ocrevus for her multiple sclerosis. Even though Hickson is trained as a medical billing coder, she was shocked to see two doses of the drug priced at $123,019, with her share set at $3,620.

The $109K Heart Attack Bill Is Down To $332. What About Other Surprise Bills?

“I don’t feel any consumer should have to go through this,” says Drew Calver, who faced a life-changing surprise bill from an Austin hospital after a heart attack last year. After attention as a “Bill of the Month” patient, he paid the hospital $332. But he worries about other patients with surprise bills.

A Transgender Woman’s Quest For Surgery Caught In Political Crosswinds

Dramatic policy swings, from an unprecedented expansion of transgender rights under the Obama administration to the unpredictable reduction of trans rights under President Donald Trump, have left many trans Americans feeling the whiplash.