A California mother named Jessica Farwell spent years pleading with insurance companies for help after a medically necessary helicopter ride for her six-month-old cost over $90,000.
Farwell’s son, Brody, was severely burned when a rice cooker fell off the countertop, spilling boiling water on his skin and causing instant, searing pain and burns.
She rushed him to a local emergency room, but because the smaller hospital was not equipped to handle such a severe burn, especially in a baby, doctors said he needed to be transferred immediately to Shriners Children’s Hospital.
However, no ambulance was available to drive the baby, and the doctors refused to allow Farwell to drive him because of his condition, so an emergency medical helicopter was called for the transport instead.
Farwell was told the helicopter ride would cost $90,000, but because the doctors had called for it as medically necessary, and because she had insurance, she was told she would not owe anything for it.
Instead, she was hit with a bill that totaled over $100,000 for Brody's care and her insurance said they would not fully cover the amount.
In total, Farwell’s remaining bill after insurance paid what they said they were responsible for was over $70,000.
According to Farwell, the fees the family was charged for just kept adding up. Medical staff even insisted that the baby be transported from the helicopter pad to the hospital’s doors via ambulance, a distance of 0.3 miles. The bill for that? $10,200.
“You literally can walk across the street to the hospital quicker than that ambulance could have brought us there,” Farwell told ABC 7 about the ordeal.
Other fees, said Farwell, included a $600 waiting fee and a “nighttime service” fee.
“You look at the bills, and it’s absolutely enraging,” the mother told ABC 7. “There’s just every single fee you can think of!”
Baby Brody suffered his burns in 2022, and Farwell has been fighting the insurance companies ever since, with no avail.
“I called my insurance,” Farwell explained to ABC 7. “I called the ambulance companies numerous times, and it’s been three years, and then they wouldn’t listen to me, wouldn’t talk to me, even just keep giving me the runaround.”
Finally, the frustrated mother reached out to ABC 7 after googling “investigative reporters” in a desperate plea to get help.
The mother reports that finally, after ABC 7 got involved, the ambulance company called her to tell her her bill had been settled.
“They called me, said, ‘We’re closing your account. It’s done. We will never bill you again,'” she described. “A huge weight lifted.”
Today, it appears Brody has fully recovered and the family no longer has the stress of medical bills hanging over their heads.
While well-wishers may be glad to hear this is one medical story that ended well, many commenters are still frustrated that the Farwells’ experience is all too common.
“It sucks that it takes public outrage for these insurance companies and hospitals to do the right thing,” wrote one commenter on X. “Truly insane and aggravating. It’s because they have monopolies. If people could buy insurance nationally then there’d be more competition and better service.”
“What the insurance companies are doing Is absolute injustice to the people. That is not feasible for anybody to pay that much just to live,” added another.
“No one should have to go through this in our country. What a mess,” agreed one commenter and mother.
