Latest news with #CenteronHealthInsuranceReforms
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bat flies into woman's mouth in Arizona, costing her nearly $21,000 in medical bills
A Massachusetts woman was bitten by nearly $21,000 in medical bills after a bat flew into her mouth during a freak incident while vacationing in Northern Arizona, the unlucky traveler said Friday. Erica Kahn, now 33, had recently lost her job as a biomedical engineer when she traveled to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in last August, she told NBC News. Kahn, whose woman-vs.-animal story was first reported Thursday by KFF News, was snapping pictures of the night sky when a bat approached and got caught in between her camera and face. Then a part of the bat got into her mouth. "It was kind of dark out and we were out on a cliff, so I was looking down and at my camera, I didn't really see it coming," she said Friday. "When it got kind of tangled between my face and the camera, it was probably just like a few seconds. But it felt like a lot longer." While there are highly effective drugs for rabies, it can be fatal if not treated before symptoms are felt. At the urging of her travel partner and father, a doctor, the symptom-less Kahn sought care for rabies — but only after jumping online to buy new medical insurance. After Kahn lost her job, she declined to pay for her former employer's insurance for $650 a month through COBRA, the federal continuation of health coverage law. The unemployed Massachusetts woman figured she could roll the dice as a healthy woman in her early 30s or at worst, could hastily buy private health insurance in a pinch, Kahn said. Kahn went online, bought a policy and then went to get rabies vaccinations and treatment in Arizona, Colorado and Massachusetts, believing she was in the clear. Then the bills started pouring in, asking for a total of $20,749, because her policy had a 30-day waiting period before she could receive treatments covered by the plan, she said. "I felt so powerless against these companies," she said. "It should be a human right to have lifesaving care covered. In most other countries, like in Europe, you just go to the hospital, you get your rabies vaccines and you pay nothing." Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University, said most plans kick in on the first of the month after enrollment. It's generally not instantaneous. 'The insurance companies — for good reason — don't want people to wait to sign up for coverage until they are sick,' Corlette told KFF. Kahn is now employed again and has health insurance, she's burdened by the bills. Kahn said looking back, she should have secured private health insurance as soon as she was laid off. "I should have done COBRA, even though it was very expensive," Kahn said. "But yeah, hindsight is 20/20." The near-$21,000 burden will probably lead to fewer vacations and a delay in having central air conditioning installed at her place, Kahn said. She said she hopes others can learn from her misstep. "It was my fault. I took the risk of not doing COBRA and that's forever on me," she said. "But if one person gets covered because they saw this story, then I would be happy about that." This article was originally published on Solve the daily Crossword
NBC News
01-08-2025
- Health
- NBC News
Bat flies into woman's mouth in Arizona, costing her nearly $21,000 in medical bills
A Massachusetts woman was bitten by nearly $21,000 in medical bills after a bat flew into her mouth during a freak incident suffered while vacationing in Northern Arizona, the unlucky traveler said Friday. Erica Kahn, now 33, had recently lost her job as a biomedical engineer when she traveled to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in August last year, she told NBC News. Kahn, whose scary woman-vs.-animal story was first reported Thursday by Kaiser Family Foundation News, was snapping pictures of the night sky when a bat approached and got caught in between her camera and face. Then a part of the bat got into her mouth. "It was kind of dark out and we were out on a cliff so I was looking down and at my camera, I didn't really see it coming," she said Friday. "When it got kind of tangled between my face and the camera, it was probably just like a few seconds. But it felt like a lot longer because it was such a crazy thing." At the urging of her travel partner and father, a doctor, the symptom-less Kahn sought care for rabies — but only after jumping online to buy new medical insurance. After Kahn lost her job as a biomedical engineer last summer, she declined to pay for her former employer's insurance for $650 a month through COBRA, the federal continuation of health coverage law. The unemployed Massachusetts woman figured she could roll the dice as a healthy woman in her early 30s or at worst, could hastily buy private health insurance in a pinch, Kahn said. Kahn went online, bought a policy and then went on to get rabies vaccinations and treatment in Arizona, Colorado and Massachusetts, believing she was in the clear. Then the medical bills started pouring in, asking for a total of $20,749, because her policy had a 30-day waiting period before she could receive treatments covered by the plan, she said. "I felt so powerless against these companies," she said. "It should be a human right to have lifesaving care covered. In most other countries, like in Europe, you just go to the hospital, you get your rabies vaccines and you pay nothing." Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University, said most plans kick in on the first of the month after enrollment. It's generally not instantaneous. 'The insurance companies — for good reason — don't want people to wait to sign up for coverage until they are sick,' Corlette told KFF. While Kahn is now employed again and has health insurance, she's still burdened by these massive bills. And with 20/20 hindsight, Kahn said she should have secured private health insurance as soon as she was laid off. "I should have done COBRA, even though it was very expensive to do Cobra," Kahn said. "But yeah, hindsight is 20/20." The near-$21,000 burden will probably lead to fewer vacations and a delay in having central air condition installed at her place, Kahn said. The now-employed bat victim said she hopes others can learn from her misstep. "It was my fault. I took the risk of not doing COBRA and that's forever on me," she said. "But if one person gets covered because they saw this story, then I would be happy about that."
Time Magazine
16-07-2025
- Business
- Time Magazine
How to Limit Medical Debt's Impact on Your Credit
For the millions of Americans struggling to pay off the costs of expensive medical procedures, the looming debt is accompanied by another threat: that the unpaid medical bills could drag down their credit scores, making it harder to get a credit card or buy a home or car. And now a rule that would have addressed that issue will no longer be going into effect. In the final days of President Joe Biden's term, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a rule that would have removed medical debt from credit reports. The goal was to 'reduce the burden of medical debt and ensure that patients are not denied access to credit for home mortgages, car loans, or small business loans due to unpaid medical bills,' according to the White House press release at the time. But under the Trump Administration, the CFPB flipped its stance on the rule, which had not yet gone into effect. And on Friday, a federal judge, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, vacated the rule, stating that it exceeded the CFPB's authority under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Roughly $88 billion of unpaid medical bills are in collections across the U.S., according to the CFPB, which estimates that the issue affects about one in five Americans. JoAnn Volk, a research professor and co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University, says the judge's ruling 'eliminates an important protection for families who are going to be shut out of credit because of this medical debt that they could not avoid.' How medical debt impacts credit CFPB research has indicated that medical debt on credit reports is 'a poor predictor' of whether a person will repay a loan, but still 'contributes to thousands of denied applications on mortgages that consumers would be able to repay,' the agency said at the time the Biden-era rule was finalized. 'We know from prior studies that medical debt does not have meaningful predictive power for people's credit worthiness. Part of the reason is that medical debt, more than any other form of debt, is the result of bad luck, not bad financial behavior,' says Neale Mahoney, an economics professor at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. 'Nobody plans to go to the hospital or have a kid slip and fall and need to be rushed to the ER and have to pay those medical bills; that is just bad luck.' The Biden-era rule would have led to the approval of about 22,000 additional, affordable mortgages annually, and the credit scores of people with medical debt on their credit reports would increase by an average of 20 points, the CFPB estimated. Mahoney says vacating it will reduce credit access for people struggling with medical debt. There are some steps that can be taken to mitigate that impact—though they're limited. Financial assistance options Mahoney advises people who find themselves faced with burdensome medical bills to first take advantage of their hospital's or physician's financial assistance program. Many hospitals have such programs, which are often listed on the back of the bill, that can reduce or sometimes even eliminate the cost depending on a patient's income or assets. 'It can be a slog to work through the process, but for many people, addressing the issue with the hospital is better than letting that issue fester and then become a medical debt with a debt collector,' Mahoney says. There are some organizations, like Dollar For, that help patients navigate these financial assistance programs. The CFPB offers some general tips for people dealing with medical debt, such as confirming the unpaid bill with the appropriate source, contacting their insurer if they believe the service should have been covered, and disputing any errors in the bill or credit report. Debt payment plans If a person's debt has been sold to a debt collector and they're concerned about its potential impact on their credit score, Mahoney recommends that they try and negotiate a payment plan with the debt collection company. Sometimes, a debt collector may be open to receiving a payment that is more within reach for the patient and, in turn, removing that debt from the credit report, he says.
