Six medical bills made headlines in the last six months, including an $847 "facility fee" for a telehealth visit and a $54,000 bill for a COVID-19 test.
1. Brittany Tesso, a Colorado resident, was recently charged $847.35 for a "facility fee" for her 3-year-old son's telehealth visit at Aurora-based Children's Hospital Colorado. She also received a bill of $676.86, which she paid. She said she took the call at home, and it appeared that some of the doctors were at their homes.
2. A man in Missouri said he received an emergency room bill for more than $1,000 despite never seeing a physician, CBS News reported Jan. 25. The visit was for his 2-year-old son, who burned his hand on a stove. The family said they waited for an hour and left without being seen.
3. A patient who went to the emergency room at Emory Decatur (Ga.) Hospital said she was billed $688 for the trip even though she didn't receive treatment or leave the waiting room. Taylor Davis said she went to the ER in July for a head injury. After waiting seven hours in the waiting room without being called back, Ms. Davis said she left. A few weeks later, she received a bill for the ER trip.
4. A nearly $240,000 air ambulance bill made headlines in October 2021 after a lawsuit was filed. The lawsuit out of Florida is challenging Anthem's decision not to cover the ambulance trip, despite the patient's physician deeming it medically necessary. According to the lawsuit, Anthem suggested that the patient, who was suffering a myocardial infarction while on a cruise, receive emergency treatment at a local Dominican Republic hospital instead of a level 1 trauma center in Florida as recommended by the patient's physician.
5. A $56,384 bill made headlines in September 2021 because it included a $54,000 charge for a PCR COVID-19 test. A patient went to SignatureCare Emergency Center in Lewisville, Texas, to get tested for COVID-19 after one of his colleagues tested positive for COVID-19 in June 2020. The total bill was $56,384, including a $54,000 charge for the PCR test, $600 for an antigen test and $1,784 for an ER facility fee. Although Mr. Warner was not on the hook for the bill — because of Congress requiring insurers to pay for COVID-19 testing without copays or cost-sharing for the patient — health experts called the charge "one of the most egregious" they've seen, according to the report.
6. In September 2021, The New York Times published a highly shared article detailing the $257,000 medical bill two new parents in New York received after the hospital stay for their newborn, who died when she was 25 days old. Cigna said the couple owed more than $257,000 for the bills it accidentally covered for the newborn's care after her mother switched health plans.