Posted on 03/14/2021 5:45:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The whir of a respiratory ventilator filled the Rodriguez house, home to Leo and his wife, Nicole. Insurance bills in their hands, a worried look on Nicole's face, the family shared the turmoil they’ve been through the last few months.
Leo, who almost died from COVID-19, was met with mounting medical bills when he returned home.
Advertisement Leo is a production supervisor at a propane company with an office in Stockton. As an essential worker, he is obligated to show up to the office and cannot work from home.
"Which I didn't mind. I love my job and I love what I do," Leo said.
In January, he along with almost a dozen of his co-workers contracted COVID-19, but Leo was the only one who was hospitalized, the family told KCRA 3.
The Stockton grandfather said his respiratory therapist told him bluntly at one point during his hospital stay that he could die.
Leo recalled his therapist telling him, "'If you don't fight, we're gonna have to put you on a ventilator and we're gonna have to put you in a coma, and a lot of people don't come out after that.' So, I was very scared."
After 35 days in the hospital and some weeks in the ICU, he was sent home in February. But Leo said that bit of relief was short-lived. Their health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, which Leo receives through his work, sent them bills for out-of-network, non-emergency costs, such as the ambulance ride home, X-rays and doctor visits.
Nicole said hospital staff told them the only way to bring Leo home was on oxygen support via ambulance. He was required to stay on oxygen the entire ride.
The family said so far, they owe more than $7,000, yet they are bracing for added costs. They have not yet received a letter detailing the amount owed for Leo’s stay in the ICU. "We're all on the front lines and now, all of a sudden, we're getting hospital bills that we may not be able to pay," Nicole said.
Advocates, such as Rachel Linn Gish, director of communications with Health Access California, believe the Rodriguez family should try to negotiate. The organization pushes for legislative changes and is a coalition that advocates for quality affordable health care.
"In the way that our health care system is currently set up, the best thing that you can do is fight it," Gish said. "If you can't go anywhere, you can't go home unless you take an ambulance and you don't have a choice, then that's a pretty strong argument that it was medically necessary."
Gish said hospital staff is directed to enter particular codes when it comes to COVID-19-related care, but ambulance services may not be woven into the same public emergency declarations, such as COVID-19 relief funding, that have been made. Gish said ambulance bills have been an issue pre-COVID-19, and will likely remain an issue afterward because of the patchwork system where some ambulance companies are run by private companies while others run by local entities.
She said this has resulted in a system that is hard to regulate and with very little oversight.
Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow with the Kaiser Family Foundation, also advises families in similar situations to reach out to their human resources department, the insurance company, as well as the ambulance company.
Pollitz added that when patients receive care from in-network providers, what consumers may not know is that doctors who treat patients at an in-network hospital may not be part of the same insurance networks, which results in surprise medical bills.
Pollitz said it’s an old problem that will see some relief in 2022 when a federal surprise medical bill law goes into effect.
Pollitz estimates that one in six hospitalizations involves at least one surprise medical bill. We also shared details of Rodriguez's insurance policy with Pollitz and explained that since the family’s health insurance is based in Kansas City, there may not be a lot of in-network options in Stockton. However, Pollitz said the COVID-19 relief fund may be able to help the Rodriguez family.
"Have you gotten even a dollar from this federal provider relief fund? And, if so, then they have to give him an accommodation," Pollitz said.
Leo’s employer provided 80 hours of pay to help offset the costs of his more than month-long absence. He said he has also used all of his vacation hours. The family said they live paycheck-to-paycheck, but if they have to set up a payment plan, they will do so.
The family sad while they're expected as front-line workers to continue putting their health at risk during the pandemic, they hope more protections can be put in place for families like theirs.
Leo said thinking of his wife and family helped him survive. Despite the health insurance bills piling up, he cites now being at home, Nicole at his side, as a plus.
"She's an amazing woman ... No matter what, we'll take this on, however we have to,” Leo said.
Leo prepared for work after finishing his interview with KCRA 3. With his wife's help and two oxygen tanks in tow, he drove off to work.
KCRA reached out to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City. As of Wednesday afternoon, we have not yet heard back.
Its ok there will be a bunch of people coming by to suggest this is respiratory failure with covid not because of covid.
Sounds like they’re prepping us for another try at Obamacare.
Never letting bad things go to waste and always arguing for your programs on the backs of hard cases are joined at the hips.
“Forget it, Jake. It’s Stockton.”
Karen Pollitz advises people to reach out to their HR, Health Insurance company as well as the ambulance company. It is the darnedest thing, you have people typing b/c to avoid using the word “because” and at the same time you have people typing out “as well as” to avoid using the word “and”.
Given the state of the Medical profession, (exacerbated by the legal profession and the political profession), Getting sick with anything serious is likely to bankrupt anyone who isn’t already on welfare or with a health insurance plan that costs thousands of dollars a month.
Covid has nothing to do with it.
What do you mean another try? We have full bore ACA now, and no one is fighting against it.
Given the state of the Medical profession, (exacerbated by the legal profession and the political profession), Getting sick with anything serious is likely to bankrupt anyone who isn’t already on welfare or with a health insurance plan that costs thousands of dollars a month.
Covid has nothing to do with it.
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Yes, but they are having a hard time convincing people to accept experimental gene therapy masquerading as a ‘vaccine’ so they have to try to frighten with financial hardship. Having read through parts of the database collecting death and side-effect data for the experimental Covid therapies, I’d say this guy needs to avoid the vaccine for financial reasons too.
Leo should sue the hell out of the medical providers for poor treatment/malpractice. All the providers had to do is give Leo HCQ/Zinc Sulfate and Azithromycin beginning within 48 hours of initial symptoms and he would have been cured of the Covid Virus within 5 days at home That has been done to thousands of patients around the world with 99.6% success. Go get em Leo.
$7,000 isn’t so much. Most hospitals will accept payments of a couple hundred dollars a month.
Never letting bad things go to waste and always arguing for your programs on the backs of hard cases are joined at the hips.
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Lucky the guy had some form of insurance.
Let’s do the math. At some point in the last year, 80 million were unemployed. That meant loss of insurance or incredibly expensive COBRA insurance (mine was $5600 a month from BCBS. I declined).
Most new positions were at much lower pay rates and usually much worse insurance (I was offered personal insurance for $1000 a month for the part-time teaching gig I had, that’s 1/3 of my monthly gross, totally unaffordable, lucky the ObamaCare tax penalties are no longer in place - that’s pretty standard for most software engineering contractor positions - $200 to $250 a week for medical insurance (KForce, Collabra, Mondo, etc) - as I’m mid-50s, with pre-existing conditions.
I foresee an avalanche of medical and rent-induced bankruptcies in September when the last stimulus bill and protections expire.
$5600 a month? I thought mine was bad.
The coming inflation will do that.
As for the rest there is actually no delegated power for the federal to spend money for anyone’s individual welfare no matter how dire their circumstances.
Yup.
$5600 a month? I thought mine was bad.
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BCBS plan with everything (it was from MLB before the big covid furlough of March/ April 2020, same plan as the ball players)
Philanthropy departments exist for a reason. There are also ways to negotiate with your provider so that costs are covered, even if it requires letters from the doctors who administered treatment.
Been there. They can also apply for Medicaid temporarily, and they’ll cover 3 months of past medical bills.
$7k isn’t really all that huge considering. I was expecting to hear of bills upwards of $50k.
Sorry. My care meter is at 0. I mean 0.00
Just tell them you recently crossed the border from Mexico, and want to vote for Joe. All charges dropped?
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