> Kohan called for a nurse, who explained that he would need jaw surgery that night. In the meantime, he tried to check whether the hospital — Dell Seton Medical Center — was in his insurance network.
> “I was on my iPhone lying there with a broken jaw, and I go on the Humana website and see the hospital listed,” Kohan says. “So I figured, okay, I should be good.”
Except he wasn’t: While the emergency room where Kohan was seen was in his insurance network, the oral surgeon who worked in that ER was not. That’s how Kohan ended up with a $7,924 bill from the oral surgeon that his health plan declined.
> Kohan called his insurance plan, which assured him that nothing was wrong — that the doctor had likely coded the visit wrong and would just need to resubmit the claim.
> Kohan’s doctor did resubmit the claim, and increased the price of the surgery by about $2,300, billing records show.
> I reached out to the doctor who saw Kohan, an oral surgeon named...
> himself did not respond to my request for an interview. But the day after Canizales and I spoke, Kohan said she called him — and let him know that the entire $7,924.13 charge was being dropped.
> I also reached out to Dell Seton hospital to ask why it contracts with an oral surgeon who does not accept any medical insurance.
> The hospital declined an interview but provided a statement noting that this is a common practice across the country.
> “I was on my iPhone lying there with a broken jaw, and I go on the Humana website and see the hospital listed,” Kohan says. “So I figured, okay, I should be good.”
Except he wasn’t: While the emergency room where Kohan was seen was in his insurance network, the oral surgeon who worked in that ER was not. That’s how Kohan ended up with a $7,924 bill from the oral surgeon that his health plan declined.
> Kohan called his insurance plan, which assured him that nothing was wrong — that the doctor had likely coded the visit wrong and would just need to resubmit the claim.
> Kohan’s doctor did resubmit the claim, and increased the price of the surgery by about $2,300, billing records show.
> I reached out to the doctor who saw Kohan, an oral surgeon named...
> himself did not respond to my request for an interview. But the day after Canizales and I spoke, Kohan said she called him — and let him know that the entire $7,924.13 charge was being dropped.
> I also reached out to Dell Seton hospital to ask why it contracts with an oral surgeon who does not accept any medical insurance.
> The hospital declined an interview but provided a statement noting that this is a common practice across the country.