Megan Rothbauer looking over piles of medical bills.
Megan Rothbauer suffered a heart attack at the young age of 29-years-old and had to be put in a medically-induced coma for 10 days. A tragic situation at any age, but after she recovered, she found her nightmare was
just beginning:
A project manager for a manufacturing company, she is one year removed from a cardiac arrest and the subsequent physical recovery is being dwarfed by a near-impossible fiscal recovery. She was sent last Sept. 9 to the emergency room at St. Mary's Hospital, which was out of her insurance network, instead of to Meriter Hospital, three blocks away, which was covered by her insurance. It's the difference between a $1,500 maximum out-of-pocket expense and the now-$50,000-plus she's facing in bills.
"I was unconscious when I was taken to the hospital," she said. "Unfortunately, I was taken to the wrong hospital for my insurance.
Although she was able to negotiate much of the bill down, she's still stuck with total financial ruin because of the decision to take her to a hospital a mere three blocks from the one in her insurance network. She's not harboring any ill will toward the staff, in fact, she credits them with excellent care and saving her life. But, she's had to put off getting married while her bankruptcy is pending. All because of a 0.3 of a mile difference between hospitals.
Meg Gaines, from the Center for Patient Partnerships, said this is type of situation is far too common:
"It's devastating for people who plan, who get insurance, get coverage, do everything they can and then, at 29, have a heart attack and get taken to the wrong hospital, and can't get married, can't do anything because they have to declare bankruptcy because they can't afford to have gone to the hospital," she said. "I mean, it's not enough to worry about having a heart attack at 29, you end up with a secondary one or a stroke because of your medical bills. I mean, it's just ridiculous. The level of frustration is astronomical."
While the ACA has helped a lot of people, this is one area that has to be drastically improved. See more of Megan Rothbauer's story
here.