Hannah Norman, Kaiser Health News
In 2018, KHN and NPR launched “Bill of the Month,” a crowdsourced investigation through which we dissect, examine and clarify medical payments you ship us. In telling the story behind one affected person’s invoice every month, our aim is to know the genesis of the customarily exorbitant and baffling costs that pervade the American medical system.
This 12 months, we’ve delved into sufferers’ predicaments from dear remedies for cat bites and snakebites, to the crippling prices of medical gear ($882 for a knee brace) and high-priced excessive tech (a $540,842 invoice for dialysis, $four,836 for laughing fuel throughout childbirth).
The classes realized every month assist “pay it forward” ― arming future well being system pilgrims with the instruments they should keep away from surprises or struggle again towards unfair costs. KHN assembled a user-friendly toolkit to assist sufferers perceive a few of the ins and outs of medical billing, what to do in case you obtain a shock medical invoice and issues to bear in mind earlier than getting medical care.
Choosing from 1000’s of reader submissions, we study every case at khn.org, in print and on NPR’s “Morning Edition” or “All Things Considered,” the place you possibly can hear the voices of the sufferers affected. You can even catch segments on “CBS This Morning.”
Take a spin through our coverage and take into account sharing your own medical-billing horror stories. Here’s to a wiser, more healthy and wealthier – with more cash staying in sufferers’ pockets — new 12 months for all our readers.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nationwide well being coverage information service. It is an editorially unbiased program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which isn’t affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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