\n\tDan Weissmann<\/span><\/p>\n

Hospital facility fees. They can feel like a charge just for walking in the door. Hospitals say they go toward overhead on facilities with lots of specialized equipment and staff, like emergency rooms.<\/p>\n

But these fees have grown<\/a> and become more common<\/a> in recent years. And as hospitals buy up outpatient facilities, patients are starting to get charged facility fees for routine tests, procedures, and visits to the doctor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

In this episode of \u201cAn Arm and a Leg,\u201d host Dan Weissmann speaks with Georgann Boatright, a retired speech pathologist from Oxford, Mississippi, who was told by her local hospital that she needed to pay an $8,000 \u201coperating room fee\u201d for a routine test. She was determined not to get overcharged, even if it meant driving hours out of state to get the test someplace cheaper.<\/p>\n

\tDan Weissmann<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t@danweissmann\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\tHost and producer of “An Arm and a Leg.” Previously, Dan was a staff reporter for Marketplace and Chicago’s WBEZ. His work also appears on All Things Considered, Marketplace, the BBC, 99 Percent Invisible, and Reveal, from the Center for Investigative Reporting.\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\tCredits\t<\/h3>\n
\tEmily Pisacreta
\n\tProducer<\/p>\n
\tClaire Davenport
\n\tProducer<\/p>\n
\tAdam Raymonda
\n\tAudio wizard<\/p>\n
\tEllen Weiss
\n\tEditor<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tClick to open the Transcript\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tTranscript<\/strong>: The Woman Who Beat an $8,000 Hospital Fee<\/strong>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Note: \u201cAn Arm and a Leg\u201d uses speech-recognition software to generate transcripts, which may contain errors. Please use the transcript as a tool but check the corresponding audio before quoting the podcast.<\/em><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> Hey there! A couple of months ago, we asked you to help us report on a type of fee that seems to be sneaking onto more and more medical bills. They\u2019re often called \u201cfacility fees.\u201d It\u2019s like a cover charge just for walking in the door. And these kinds of fees are familiar to a lot of folks from places like emergency rooms, which do have a LOT of specialized equipment and staff in the facility behind that door. That\u2019s basically the case for a cover charge: Once you get in the door, there\u2019s a lot of stuff there. But in some cases, with facility fees, the door is just the entrance to a doctor\u2019s office. Because facility fees\u2013 they\u2019re often charged by hospitals. And hospitals own a lot of doctors\u2019 offices these days. And once they take over, there\u2019s no law that says they can\u2019t just call that doctor\u2019s office part of their facility and start charging.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We asked what you\u2019d been seeing. A bunch of you sent us stories, and copies of your bills, and your insurance statements. And when we called to follow up, you took our calls. You had A LOT to say.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Teresa: Oh, it made me so mad, so mad. Anne: I mean, it\u2019s a 10-minute appointment for a prescription.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Amanda: I don\u2019t understand any of it. Where did this number come from?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>We learned a bunch. Especially from those of you who are not new to this kind of thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Francesca: It was a running joke with my husband and myself that like, okay, it\u2019s time for my weekly, one-to-two hour phone call with Cigna.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>People who\u2019ve been contending with the health care system for a while, dealing with chronic illnesses, or going to the doctor for monitoring, or having some kind of ongoing treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anne: I see her once a year. I\u2019ve seen her once a year for 18 years at the time. And then they started charging the facility fee.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>And I\u2019ve always said here, we have a lot to learn from each other. And what we learned here is a lot more than is gonna fit in one episode. So we\u2019re gonna start here with one story that really stood out. Partly because it involved the biggest dollar amount we saw: An eight-thousand dollar facility fee. And partly because the person we heard from \u2026 didn\u2019t end up paying it. And partly because of what it took for her to avoid paying it. She had what I might call a lifetime of preparation\u2013 including lessons I think a lot of us can learn from. And she has the kind of grit that not all of us have. But I\u2019m hoping that some of it might rub off. So let\u2019s meet her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: My name is Georgann Boatright, and I am a retired speech pathologist.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> Georgann lives in Oxford, Mississippi. She works for the university there, Ole Miss, coordinating special events.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: It\u2019s lots of fun. Never a dull moment. Everything from weddings to conferences.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> The day we talked, she had made coffee for 500 people. Before eight am. And here\u2019s how she describes her response to that eight-thousand dollar charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I was like, that\u2019s insane. And of course, being the obnoxious human being that I can be at times, and a little bit pushy, you know; sometimes you got to do that. I\u2019ve always been that advocate for everybody else, so sometimes I have to advocate for me.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>Georgann pushed back\u2013 we will talk about how far she had to go. And among other things, we\u2019re talking about actual miles she had to travel. It was not easy. But it was worth it. Let\u2019s take a ride.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is An Arm and a Leg\u2013 a show about why health care costs so freaking much, and what we can maybe do about it. I\u2019m Dan Weissmann. I\u2019m a reporter, and I like a challenge. So the job we\u2019ve chosen here is to take one of the most enraging, terrifying, depressing parts of American life, and bring you a show that\u2019s entertaining, empowering, and useful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright grew up in Oxford, went to Ole Miss\u2013 the University of Mississippi, right in town. And after a decade and change in places like Huntsville, Arkansas, and towns near Springfield, Missouri, she moved back to Oxford about 15 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: My mom came ill. And so I moved back to Mississippi to be with her for the end.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> Georgann herself had a health scare not long after\u2013 it turned out to be a non-cancerous tumor. Her local doctors couldn\u2019t figure out the problem, but she found good treatment at West Cancer Center in Memphis, about an hour and a half away. And then, in 2022, an actual breast cancer diagnosis. She went back to the West Cancer Center in Memphis for treatment. And while she was being treated for breast cancer, her doctors found a thyroid problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: But they were kind of like, okay, we\u2019ll put that on a back burner for right now because we got to take care of this first.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> So, they did! And you know, that took months, of course. Once she was done\u2013 and no evidence of cancer for a few months!\u2013 they picked up the thyroid thread. Her endocrinologist in town suggested what\u2019s called a needle biopsy: no incision, just pulling a sample with basically a syringe, guided by ultrasound. And Georgann was plenty familiar with the procedure because she\u2019d had two of them for her breast cancer.<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: Well, of course, having just done all this other stuff, I was kind of like, oh, okay, just another biopsy. No big deal.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> Her endocrinologist suggested the local hospital, Baptist Memorial, North Mississippi. And started getting her scheduled there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I was just sitting in my office doing my thing and, you know, answering emails, trying to get people to sign up and do a wedding. So, they called me and said, \u201cHey, you know, we need a thousand dollars up front.\u201d And I\u2019m like, why? I\u2019ve already met my deductible. Da, da, da. You know, and they\u2019re like, Oh, well, this is just this is just your copay.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>None of this sounded right to Georgann, based on her experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I\u2019d had two biopsies done in the past year, just in the process of doing the breast stuff. And I was like, that\u2019s not normal.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>At the cancer center in Memphis, a thousand dollars was in the ballpark for the whole procedure, like before insurance paid anything. And Georgann\u2019s share, after insurance, was like a fraction of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: And I went, excuse me, because of course I was expecting, you know, under a hundred bucks, you know. And they acted very offended that I questioned. She was like, \u201cWell, this is standard.\u201d And I was like, \u201cBut I\u2019m confused,\u201d and, you know, and the more questions, she got kind of defensive.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>Georgann says she quickly developed a little sympathy for the woman on the other side of the call.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I was like, this person has no clue. This is their job. They\u2019re given this information. They\u2019re given my phone number. They\u2019re told to collect a thousand dollars from me. You know, I mean, it\u2019s not her fault.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> So, Georgann quickly made a new plan. First step: get a line-item version of that estimate, in writing. And next: find somebody else to talk with.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I was like, \u201cWell, hey, how about you just do me a printout and I\u2019ll come by the hospital and pick that up. If you\u2019ll just leave it with somebody near the desk \u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: \u2026 <\/strong>Then Georgann figured she can actually see what these charges are for and you know, maybe talk to somebody who\u2019ll know a little more. She went that same day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I wanted to get the biopsy done. I wanted to find out what was going on. You know, once you\u2019ve had cancer, it kind of, that C word just does not sit well with your brain. You kind of, it starts eating at you and you\u2019re like, I really want to know.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>And she wanted to know why the hospital wanted a thousand dollars from her. She got that printout\u2013 the line item estimate. It showed thirteen thousand dollars in charges. And the single biggest charge\u2013 more than half of the whole bill\u2013 eight thousand dollars\u2013 was for an \u201coperating room\u201d charge. It wasn\u2019t labeled \u201cfacility fee,\u201d but that\u2019s exactly what it was. Georgann sent us this line-item estimate. We showed it to a medical-bill coding expert; she confirmed\u2013 this is a facility fee. And I\u2019ll just mention again: Of all the people who sent us bills with facility fees on them, this was the highest by a LOT. Alot a lot. And seeing this \u201coperating room\u201d charge really set off alarm bells for Georgann. Because Georgann had just had TWO needle biopsies. And they sure as heck had not taken place in an operating room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: It\u2019s a needle aspiration. It is ultrasound-guided. So it\u2019s done in radiology. This is not in an operating room.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>When she got to Baptist, Georgann did get to talk in person with a billing specialist. It wasn\u2019t a satisfying heart-to-heart, but it gave Georgann the clarity she needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: At a certain point in the conversation, I was just kind of like, \u201cYou do realize that there is not an operating room involved in this?\u201d And she said, \u201cWell, of course, there is.\u201d I was like, \u201cNo, there really isn\u2019t.\u201d \u201cOh, well, that\u2019s just our standard procedure.\u201d And so she stuck with that. And so I was like, okay, well, since you\u2019re going to just stick with this, I\u2019m going to just let this go. Because if I can\u2019t seem to get you to understand that I\u2019m not going to pay you 8,000 dollars for an operating room that I\u2019m not going to go in, we\u2019re not going to get anywhere.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> And Georgann knew she had an alternative: She could go back to the cancer center in Memphis. It was a bit of a drive, but she trusted them to do good work and not to overbill her. So that\u2019s what she did. Her out of pocket cost was eighty dollars. We asked Baptist all about Georgann\u2019s experience, and what was behind this eight-thousand dollar charge. Especially since medical and surgical supplies were listed as separate line items.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A hospital spokesperson wrote back: \u201cThe price a patient sees on the hospital bill also reflects all the people who care for them and keep the hospital operating, not just the services provided, such as nurses and caregivers at the bedside, pharmacists, lab technicians, food service staff, environmental service professionals and security personnel who, among many others, keep the hospital running 24\/7. We believe we charge fair and reasonable prices for our expert care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, we also asked Baptist why there would be an operating room charge at all, when the patient didn\u2019t expect to be seen in an operating room. The spokesperson wrote back: \u201cI\u2019m not sure why there was a discrepancy. But, in general, the pricing information we share with patients is only an estimate, and the final bill can vary. We encourage patients to contact us with any questions.\u201d OK, then. And I just want to say: I think\u2013 well, I KNOW\u2013 that I\u2019ve undersold what it took for Georgann to make that decision. I mean, yeah, we\u2019ve seen, Georgann showed a lot of initiative, and savvy, and decisiveness, and a certain amount of grace in navigating a couple of conversations with her local hospital\u2019s billing department. But we haven\u2019t seen EXACTLY what made her so prepared for those conversations, and to make her decision so quickly. And if we\u2019re gonna learn from Georgann\u2019s example, we\u2019ve gotta look at that. That\u2019s coming right up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This episode of An Arm and a Leg is a co-production of Public Road Productions and KFF Health News. Public Road is the organization I founded to make this show. The name comes from Walt Whitman; I\u2019ll tell you about it sometime. KFF Health News is a nonprofit newsroom covering healthcare in America. Their journalists do amazing work\u2013 win all kinds of awards, every year. I\u2019m honored to work with them. So, what allowed Georgann Boatright to navigate those conversations with her hospital billing department so skillfully? And to quickly decide to drive to another city for care? Well, let\u2019s start with her old job as a speech pathologist. You might remember, when she did that job, she was living in places like Huntsville, Arkansas. Or, as Georgann describes it \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: \u2026 Absolutely the middle of nowhere, Arkansas.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> It\u2019s not like a speech therapist is gonna have a ton of clients in town. Georgann worked for an agency that sent her all over the place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I was driving about three- to five-hundred miles a day when I retired.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: A day!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: Yeah, well, they\u2019re spread a little thin in that area.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: Yeah. Yeah. Right. How fast were you driving? Like, how many hours are we talking about being on the road?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I was usually on the road 12 to 14 hours a day.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: Oh my god.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: Yeah, but that\u2019s because, you know, I was bouncing in and out everywhere from Liberty, Missouri, which is outside of Kansas City, all the way down into Arkansas.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>So, we start to get the idea that driving an hour and a half from Oxford to Memphis is, you know, not such a big deal to Georgann. But there\u2019s this other thing. Which is what Georgann spent all those hours in her car actually doing. Because she was not listening to podcasts, I can tell you that. She was dealing with health insurance. On behalf of her colleagues and her patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I was the person in our company that would do all the appeals. I got really good at getting Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield\u2013 all the insurances to pay.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> Georgann did all this by phone, with somebody back at the home office transcribing for her. It was part of her gig\u2013 because she had all that time in the car. The agency she worked with also employed physical therapists and occupational therapists, sending them out to nursing homes. And those colleagues would have multiple appointments a day at the same spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I would only have like, maybe one or two patients during the course of the day, and then I would end up doing paperwork the rest of the day or helping someone else do paperwork.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> Because not only did Georgann have time with all those hours in the car. She had something else: language skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: The crew that I worked with, they were mostly from the Philippines, and we partied very well. And I ate a lot of good food, and I gained weight. And no fault of their own, English wasn\u2019t their first language. So that was part of my job was to make sure that the language barrier wasn\u2019t the problem for the physical and occupational therapists getting paid.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>So for five years, she spent most of her long workday dealing with insurance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: That was what I did, and I was really, really good at it. You know, when you get on a first name basis with the reps in your area, you know that you\u2019re a thorn in their side. When they would see my name, they\u2019d be like, \u201cWe might as well just go ahead and pay this one because she\u2019s going to find a way to get it through.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> So when Georgann ended up talking with those folks at her local hospital\u2019s billing office\u2013 the folks who were trying to tell her that an eight-thousand-dollar operating-room fee was just standard\u2013 she had a pretty good idea of what their jobs were: Just getting the hospital\u2019s money.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I get that. And I understand that, but you know, you have to understand when you\u2019re calling people and asking them for money that you have to know why they\u2019re paying you money and whether or not you can justify how much they\u2019re paying you.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>So, just to recap: When Georgann was in those conversations with the local hospital billing department, she had years and years of experience in medical billing. She was, by her account, really really good at it. It doesn\u2019t seem like a stretch to guess that when she talked with these folks at the local hospital\u2019s billing department, she knew a lot more about medical billing than they did. And she knew that this hospital wasn\u2019t her only option. She had just done cancer treatment at West Cancer Center in Memphis. She trusted them, and they hadn\u2019t overbilled her. And she wasn\u2019t afraid of a road trip. That 300-mile, 500-mile-a-day job was a while ago, but just in the last year she\u2019d made the trek to Memphis for cancer treatments, several times. In fact, the story of the wrap-up to that treatment gave me real appreciation for Georgann Boatright\u2019s brand of cheerful grit and determination. For more than a year, Georgann had been planning a big family reunion for Christmas: Her kids, their kids, gathered from across the country, to a lodge near her husband\u2019s mom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I wanted his mom who has been getting on in age to get a chance to see the great grands and this kind of stuff.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>Georgann had made the reservation for the lodge months before her cancer diagnosis. And then, the last day of her radiation treatment got scheduled for December 23. The reunion was scheduled to start that very night. In Branson, Missouri\u2013 a five-hour drive from Memphis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: And I was like, I am not canceling this. Everybody\u2019s like, \u201cMom, you don\u2019t have to do this,\u201d blah, blah, blah. I was like, \u201cNo, I\u2019m going to be healthy and done with this treatment. By the time of this reservation.\u201d I said, \u201cI don\u2019t care what happens!\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> The procedure that last day was to remove a device that had been delivering targeted radiation doses. And when the day came, an ice storm knocked out the power at West Cancer Center. The medical staff suggested, you know, rescheduling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: They\u2019re like, \u201cWell, do you want to come \u2026 No! I want this done. I am not coming back tomorrow.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: Wow.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I am going to make this reservation. I\u2019m going to spend the night in a very nice place in Branson, Missouri and play in the snow.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>It wasn\u2019t gonna be easy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: There was no power. There was no lights. There was only the little emergency generator lights that come on in a hospital.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>But they made it work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I had it taken out that day. By the flashlights of the nurses\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>The flashlights on the nurses phones! Georgann says she slept in the car while her husband drove them to Branson that day. Mission accomplished.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: It was a great trip, and everybody was there, and it was wonderful to kind of celebrate at the end of that. I was done with radiation. I was like, I\u2019m going to get well now and just keep kicking cancer\u2019s butt. Because I was like, I am not giving up.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> I said right at the top: This story is epic, right? And I said that whatever\u2019s powering Georgann Boatright, I hope just a little bit of it can rub off on us\u2013 on me. So, when Georgann talked with the folks in the billing department at her local hospital, she knew just what she was capable of. Also, it\u2019s worth mentioning, she knew she had some other things that not everybody has: She knew she had excellent insurance because she\u2019d seen it at work when she got the bills for her breast cancer treatment. And she knew she had someone to drive her to Memphis and back. Uber? That would\u2019ve cost a LOT. Actually, Georgann says she priced it recently for her job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: It\u2019s 145 dollars, and I was like, you got to be kidding me!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> I believe I could fly to Memphis from Chicago for 145 dollars one way.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: I could get a flight to Southwest for 120. Believe me, I do it. That\u2019s my thing. If I do it during the week, I can go from here to Midway. Yeah.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> Wait, why is flying to Chicago\u2019s Midway airport Georgann\u2019s thing? Well, the answer actually relates to one more thing Georgann had going for her in this whole scenario. Something\u2013 someone\u2013 I left out before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melissa McChesney: My name is Melissa McShesney. I live in Chicago, Illinois.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> Melissa is Georgann\u2019s daughter. She is the mom of two of Georgann\u2019s grandkids. Melissa\u2019s brother\u2013 dad to three more grandkids\u2013 he also lives in Chicago. Those kids and grandkids are, all of them, the reason Georgann has that airfare at the tip of her tongue. But it\u2019s Melissa who plays a role in this story. Because Melissa works for CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services\u2013 the federal agency that oversees Medicaid and Medicare. So health insurance is her job. I mean, at least government-funded insurance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melissa McChesney: I only know enough to be dangerous on the private side. But, you know, I have colleagues that know a lot more.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> Melissa and her mom\u2013 two health-insurance experts\u2013 can back each other up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melissa McChesney: It\u2019s always great to have another set of eyes. So, sometimes I call her, sometimes she calls me.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>This time\u2013 after those conversations with the hospital billing department\u2013 it was Georgann who did the dialing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melissa McChesney: She called me to say, \u201cThis doesn\u2019t make any sense. Why is this the most expensive procedure I\u2019ve seen in a year when I just went through breast cancer treatment? At least from the out-of-pocket cost. And I quite frankly didn\u2019t fully know either.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> So some poking around led Melissa to a story from the Bill of the Month series our pals at KFF Health News do with NPR.\u00a0<\/p>\n
NPRHost: For our September bill of the month, we\u2019re taking a close look at facility charges \u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>And this story was a pretty exact match with Georgann\u2019s situation: An operating room charge for a needle biopsy. NPR\u2019s website even had a PDF of the original bill, with the billing codes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melissa McChesney: Which was very helpful, actually, because I was able to see the fee that the article was focused on. And I was like, \u201cThis is the exact same thing, mom.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>And that bit of context? It confirmed for Georgann that she could trust her initial impression: That this \u201coperating room\u201d fee seemed out of whack. And that she could do better. So she had that biopsy at West Cancer Center in Memphis before the week was out. And good news: She\u2019s OK! The biopsy came back benign. Her local endocrinologist has been monitoring her bloodwork.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: And so right at the moment, my thyroid levels are all staying normal. So they\u2019re not concerned that it\u2019s throwing off everything unless it becomes like a huge thing that grows in my neck.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan:<\/strong> And she gets an occasional ultrasound at a local clinic. No needle, no hospital, no facility fees\u2013 and keeping an eye on the bills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgann Boatright: They have been very reasonable. That\u2019s why I was like, okay, well I\u2019ll continue doing this as long as y\u2019all don\u2019t screw me over anymore.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>One last thing I should tell you about Georgann and how she handled that eight thousand dollar charge the hospital had wanted: This is something she did after her daughter Melissa sent her that NPR story\u2013 you know, the one that helped her decide she was definitely going to Memphis. Melissa\u2019s got this part of the story.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melissa McChesney: She sent the NPR article and her estimate to her endocrinologist and said, \u201cJust so you know, this is what happens when you refer individuals to this hospital. And you know, it would cost them a lot of money.\u201d I was so proud of her for doing that. it just speaks to my mom and trying to be a person who\u2019s not just worried about her own experience, but the experience of others in her community.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u00a0Dan:<\/strong> I\u2019m telling you, we all want some of Georgann Boatright to rub off on us.An ArmandaLeg Season 12, Episode 1 July, 11, 2024 p.14 You sent us SO MANYstories about facility fees. I hope you can see why we wanted to bring you this one first, but we are not done. We talked with a bunch of you\u2013 and we talked with some experts who gave us some insights \u2026 and some lessons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shelley Safian: Sometimes you talk to the physician, sometimes you talk to the facility, sometimes you got to go to the president and say, \u201cYou know what? This is not right.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>And we talked to experts who gave us a look at what policy makers all over the country are doing\u2013 or trying to do\u2013 about these fees. Because they\u2019re definitely paying attention. Because a lot of people are recognizing: You should not need to be Georgann Boatright to find a way around fees like this. Most of us aren\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Christine Monahan: There\u2019s bipartisan interest in this issue. We are seeing these reforms bubble up across the states.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Dan: <\/strong>So over the next couple of months, we\u2019ll be sharing a LOT more of what you\u2019ve been helping us learn. Meanwhile, because you\u2019ve been so incredibly helpful here, I\u2019m going to come back to you soon asking for more help on a different story. That\u2019s coming next time. Till then, take care of yourself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This episode of An Arm and a Leg was produced by Emily Pisacreta and Claire Davenport, with help from me, Dan Weissmann, and edited by Ellen Weiss. Adam Raymonda is our audio wizard. Our music is by Dave Weiner and Blue Dot Sessions. Gabrielle Healy is our managing editor for audience. Gabe Bullard is our engagement editor. Bea Bosco is our consulting director of operations. Sarah Ballama is our operations manager.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An Arm and a Leg is produced in partnership with KFF Health News. That\u2019s a national newsroom producing in-depth journalism about healthcare in America and a core program at KFF, an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Zach Dyer is senior audio producer at KFF Health News. He\u2019s editorial liaison to this show.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And thanks to the Institute for Nonprofit News for serving as our fiscal sponsor. They allow us to accept tax-exempt donations. You can learn more about INN at INN.org.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finally, thank you to everybody who supports this show financially. You can join in any time at https:\/\/armandalegshow.com\/support\/<\/a>. Thanks so much for pitching in if you can\u2013 and, thanks for listening.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn Arm and a Leg\u201d is a co-production of KFF Health News and Public Road Productions.<\/p>\n
To keep in touch with \u201cAn Arm and a Leg,\u201d\u00a0 subscribe to its newsletters<\/a>. You can also\u00a0follow the show on\u00a0 Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the social platform X<\/a>. And if you\u2019ve got stories to tell about the health care system, the producers\u00a0 would love to hear from you<\/a>.<\/p>\n
***To hear all KFF Health News podcasts,* click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
And subscribe to \u201cAn Arm and a Leg\u201d on *Spotify<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Pocket Casts<\/a>, or wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n***