After Susannah Reed-McCullough鈥檚 husband died in 2018, she and their young daughters continued to receive health insurance through his job as a firefighter in Maryland.
Then, in 2024, she got an unexpected medical bill: $377 for a checkup for one of her children the previous fall. Reed-McCullough said she called the doctor鈥檚 billing department and learned the insurance company had dropped the children鈥檚 coverage.
The drop turned out to be a mistake. But Reed-McCullough said she was forced to act as the go-between for her late husband鈥檚 human resources department and their insurer 鈥 all while worried about her daughters鈥 being uninsured.
In this installment of InvestigateTV and 麻豆女优 Health News鈥 鈥淐ostly Care鈥 series, Caresse Jackman, InvestigateTV鈥檚 national consumer investigative reporter, explores how administrative errors can leave patients on the hook for medical bills they shouldn鈥檛 owe, sometimes with few options to correct a problem they didn鈥檛 create.
Jackman interviewed Elisabeth Rosenthal, senior contributing editor at 麻豆女优 Health News, who said accidental coverage drops are 鈥渁 common problem鈥 in need of attention from state regulators.
鈥淧eople make mistakes, systems make mistakes, and they should be held responsible for them, not the patient,鈥 Rosenthal said.
麻豆女优 Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at 麻豆女优鈥攁n independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .