A woman from Florida was billed for childbirth for $ 500 thousand, although she had insurance: why it happened

A Florida woman was left with a hospital bill of more than half a million dollars after giving birth - despite having health insurance, reports CBS.

Photo: Shutterstock

She changed her health plan while her newborn was in intensive care, and she said it led to a lot of billing confusion.

Her son Dorian is now a healthy one year old, but when he was born prematurely in November 2020, he was rushed to the intensive care unit. His mother Busy Bennett was afraid for his health.

“I didn’t even know if he was born alive or not,” Bennett said.

Dorian was in the hospital for about two months before he was healthy enough to go home. Bennett then received a hospital bill for more than $550.

“I was really upset when I saw the half-million dollar set because I felt like I had done everything in my power to not get that huge bill,” she said.

She chose a network hospital for her United Healthcare coverage. But in January 2021, while her son was still in intensive care, her employer changed the health plan to UMR.

Rather than billing United Healthcare for 2020 and UMR for 2021, the hospital billed both policies for both years. When neither of them were able to cover the bill due to an administrative error, Bennett was presented with a check for more than $ 550.

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“I called the hospital several times to tell them, 'Hey, you guys are dumping the bill, you need to split it,” the woman says.

Despite her calls, the same invoice was sent again with a payment plan of nearly $ 46 a month.

"That's funny. I don’t have $46 a month,” Bennett said.

“I was afraid of debt collectors,” she said. “I hope that after this story, they will really think about health care from a holistic point of view.” Health is not just about the hospital... It also has to do with how you treat someone after they are discharged from the hospital."

Advent Health Orlando Hospital amended the bill after it was contacted by Kaiser Health News in October. Bennett's check was then updated to $ 300.

United Healthcare said in a statement that it did not receive a portion of its 2020 hospital bill until this fall.

“We apologize for the concern this has caused,” the hospital said in a statement.

“This case allowed us to identify opportunities in our system to improve billing and communication for prospective patients whose coverage may change during treatment,” the statement said.

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Kaiser Health News Editor-in-Chief Dr. Elizabeth Rosenthal said, "The problem is that when there is confusion or disagreement between providers, the patient is left with nothing."

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