This week's #WTHealth podcast now posted! Join our deep dive into the biz of health care with Joanne Kenen, Anna Edney, and Lauren Weber.
khn.org/news/article/p…

No. 700

Add a seat to the table Babe, Barry, and Hank, Albert Pujols has joined your club.

#stlcards #Cardinals #MLB #HOF #Dodgers

This story resonates with our experience after losing Micah. Even with the best of the best insurance, we still had a $60k medical bill in question that required countless phone calls of me explaining our coverage and how my son had died. #preventNEC
npr.org/sections/healt…

Tune in a little after 4 p.m. EST on All Things Considered today to hear Kingsley talk more about his experience with Juana Summers and me.

npr.org/sections/healt…

“My daughter passed away. I’m not unscathed, but I’m not in financial ruin. The same can’t be said for every family,” he said.

“How lucky am I? I went through the worst thing imaginable, and I consider myself lucky — what kind of weird, messed-up logic is that?”

He hates that Sterling’s life can be reduced to a 2-inch stack of printed-out medical bills and the phone calls he still must endure from errant billers.

And everyone kept telling Kingsley and Maddie to get divorced so Sterling would qualify for Medicaid to keep their costs down.

But that wasn’t an option for Kingsley, a British citizen who is in the U.S. on a green card after meeting Maddie on Tinder.

After KHN reached out for comment, the Shickels got a call from UVA saying that the hospital was refunding what the Shickels eventually ended up paying.

The hospital care team had given the family a pamphlet about what to do when grieving, but a more useful one, Jessica said, would have been titled “How Do You Deal With Medical Bills After Your Child Has Died?” as they muddled through the wave of bills and prior approval notices.

But his congenital disorder meant the left side of his heart never fully developed. Each year in the U.S., over a thousand babies are born with the syndrome (including Sterling).

After two surgeries, Jack’s heart could not pump enough blood on its own. He made it 35 days.

Jack Shickel was born with stunning silver hair and hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Even though he was surrounded by wires and tubes, the nurses at UVA Children’s Hospital would whisper to Jessica and her husband, Isaac, that they had a truly “cute” baby.

Bennett died last July after doctors said his lungs could not fight anymore.

The Markows spent their bereavement leave battling with insurers and other billing agencies.

Crissa estimates she spent six to eight hours a week dealing with medical bills to keep them from being sent to collections — which still happened.

She was also charged over $71,000 for an out-of-network emergency plane ride for Bennett -- more than she makes in a year.