Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Wisconsin woman dies, comes back to life, but faces bankruptcy after insurance won't pay 'wrong' hospital

by David Edwards
A Wisconsin woman said this week that she may have to file for bankruptcy because she was taken to an out-of-network hospital after having a heart attack, but now she owes more than $50,000 more than she would have if she had been taken to a hospital less than half a mile away.
Megan Rothbauer, 30, told WISC-TV that she technically died of cardiac arrest last September, and was taken to St. Mary's Hospital, where she spent the next ten days in a coma.
She lived, but was shocked to receive a $254,000 bill from the hospital. Blue Cross Blue Shield, her insurer, eventually agreed to pay its in-network rate of $156,000 to offset the bill. And St. Mary's negotiated to reduce the remainder of the bill by $98,000.
That left Rothbauer owing more than $50,000 instead of the $1,500 maximum out-of-pocket fee that she would have had to pay at an in-network hospital that was just three blocks from St. Mary's.
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