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ck4829

(35,714 posts)
Sat May 20, 2023, 03:11 AM May 2023

Health Insurance Sends Letter to Baby Denying Coverage: "You Are Drinking From a Bottle"

In an editorial for the Washington Post, Kaiser Family Foundation senior contributing editor Elizabeth Rosenthal described the problem of insurance claim denials in the starkest terms: by providing examples of real letters people had gotten denying them and their loved ones coverage.

One such letter, sent directly to a newborn baby, was so absurd that — if it weren't real and published in WaPo — we would think it was satire.

"You are drinking from a bottle," read the denial for the infant's fourth day in the neonatal ICU ward. "You are breathing on your own."

"If only the baby could read," Rosenthal quipped, to devastating effect.

https://futurism.com/neoscope/health-insurance-denial-baby

World's Greatest Healthcare hard at work.

10 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Health Insurance Sends Letter to Baby Denying Coverage: "You Are Drinking From a Bottle" (Original Post) ck4829 May 2023 OP
while it makes you shake your head Skittles May 2023 #1
It's crazy ck4829 May 2023 #2
Someone? Or some thing? Like ... A.I.? Auggie May 2023 #4
probably c/p from a report. mopinko May 2023 #5
Possibly. But AI should be used to help cure diseases, not be the Terminator. Am I right? ck4829 May 2023 #8
Automated claims denial does not require AI DBoon May 2023 #10
Make the baby comply with work requirements. rubbersole May 2023 #3
That's like my rejection for a PET scan woodsprite May 2023 #6
Elizabeth Rosenthal ShepKat May 2023 #7
My husband went to the ER in terrible pain. redstatebluegirl May 2023 #9

Skittles

(158,153 posts)
1. while it makes you shake your head
Sat May 20, 2023, 04:13 AM
May 2023

it really is quite inhumane....try to imagine the thinking that goes along with this kind of behavior from insurance companies

ck4829

(35,714 posts)
2. It's crazy
Sat May 20, 2023, 04:22 AM
May 2023

Someone actually, actually, typed "You are drinking from a bottle" addressed directly to a newborn baby, they folded that paper, placed it an envelope, mailed it, and received a salary for that.

If the subject wasn't "American healthcare", this would sound like something you'd see in some dystopian or surrealist fiction.

DBoon

(22,987 posts)
10. Automated claims denial does not require AI
Sat May 20, 2023, 03:43 PM
May 2023

You have a program that reads in patient information, selects an applicable denial reason, prints out and mails the letter.
No human intervention required.

Insurance companies are far too cheap to have humans type out these sort of things.

woodsprite

(12,169 posts)
6. That's like my rejection for a PET scan
Sat May 20, 2023, 06:50 AM
May 2023

They put it in writing and told my onco verbally that I had a recurrence of endometrial cancer after 15 yrs, I had treatment, I’ve had all my female organs removed and a bowel resection, no need to follow up with a PET scan to follow a slightly enlarged inoperable lymph node that showed up on a CAT scan with contrast to determine if it was a spread or just reactive.

Thank goodness he and my uro collaborated and came up with a way to monitor me by continuing and getting approval for quarterly CAT scans with contrast, which showed more detail. AND thankful that it was a reactive node and has continued to shrink.

(Sorry for the poorly formed run-on sentence. That’s what happens before coffee. )

ShepKat

(411 posts)
7. Elizabeth Rosenthal
Sat May 20, 2023, 06:53 AM
May 2023

is my husband's cousin. Amazing person. The book, "An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back" is an eye opener

redstatebluegirl

(12,458 posts)
9. My husband went to the ER in terrible pain.
Sat May 20, 2023, 10:57 AM
May 2023

They rushed him in and immediately started an IV and pushed a pain med through the IV. We found out it was a large kidney stone.

Two weeks later we get the EOB from Cigna saying they would not pay for the IV questioning it's necessity. They did however pay for the iv push drugs.

Now, if you have kidney stones the push fluids to try and help it pass. Still arguing this $1500 charge.

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