Mom is stunned after son's 15-minute trip to the ER results in $100,000 bill

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

A mother has shared her shock after receiving a $100,000 bill for a 15-minute ride to the ER for her six-month-old baby.
In 2022, Jessica Farwell's son Brody was severely burned after a rice cooker fell off the kitchen counter, so she rushed him to the hospital.
What she wasn't aware of was that long after her son had healed, she'd still be suffering years of bureaucratic pain whilst dealing with her insurance company.
When Brody was first injured, the mom recalled her baby 'screaming' in pain with doctors initially giving him fentanyl through his nose to try and ease it.
'His skin, it just instantly bubbled up,' the Northern Californian mom recalled in a recent interview with ABC7. 'I was just like, is his face going to start bubbling?'
'Seeing your baby in so much pain was just like the worst feeling as a mom,' she admitted.
However, the hospital lacked a burn unit so Brody needed to be transferred to a children's hospital in Sacramento, which is 58 miles south of Antioch, where they live.
Jessica was then told they had no ambulances available to transport Brody to a hospital that was equipped to handle his injury.
'There wasn't going to be an ambulance for seven hours,' she explained.
Wanting to get her son help as soon as possible, she asked if she could make the one-hour and 20-minute drive with Brody herself, and was told no.
"They said, "No, sorry, you can't - I can't let you leave with him. I've already called the helicopter." [They] basically told me there was nothing I could do,' Jessica recalled.
As getting an ambulance wasn't an option, the only way to get to Sacramento was a 15-minute helicopter ride that would cost nearly $90,000.
However, Jessica was reassured that she would not receive the bill since the hospital requested the helicopter and she had insurance.
'I was just absolutely terrified to fly, I'm breaking down. He's screaming. It was just awful,' the scared mom recalled.
The costs weren't over once they got to the hospital with the mom being told an ambulance was required to get to the hospital entrance from the heliport, which was only 0.3 miles away.
'You can see the hospital. You literally can walk across the street to the hospital quicker than that ambulance, and they charged me [another] $10,200,' Jessica said, outraged.
Once they got to the hospital, Brody was treated for his burns and discharged the next day.
For Jessica, the nightmare wasn't over with the mom receiving a bill for $100,032 months after Brody had been discharged.
'I couldn't believe my eyes,' she said. 'You look at the bills, and it's absolutely enraging. We got hit for a $600 waiting fee; there's a fee for it being a nighttime service. There's just every single fee you can think of.'
Despite being told the transport to the hospital wouldn't be a problem because she has insurance, Jessica later found out that her insurance would only cover less than half of the cost of the helicopter, and a fraction of the ambulance.
This left her having to pay $57,929.80 for the helicopter and another $7,327 for the ambulance.
'I've called the hospital, ambulance company, my insurance numerous times,' she said.
'It's been three years, and then they wouldn't listen to me or talk to me. They just kept giving me the runaround.'
Jessica wasn't aware that after her son had healed, she'd still be suffering years bureaucratic pain whilst dealing with her insurance company
After years of trying to get the bill waived, Jessica reached out to investigative reporters at ABC 7's On Your Side in San Francisco.
With the help of the reporters, she was able to get both bills waived and said the insurance company called her back assuring her she'd never be billed again.
'They almost sounded apologetic,' Jessica said, adding that she was in disbelief and immediately told her husband.
'It's a miracle!' she said enthusiastically.
California passed the law AB 716 in January 2024, which protects people from receiving surprise bills for ground ambulance services.
However, as Brody's accident happened before the law was passed, the ambulance bill was not waived.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Pro Transport-1, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Shriners Children's Hospital for comment.