4. The Million Dollar Baby

The Cost of Care

Lauren Bard’s little girl, Sadie, had a 50/50 chance of survival when she was born 14 weeks premature. Luckily, Lauren is a nurse at Dignity Health, a Catholic hospital, so she had good insurance and knew how to protect herself...or so she thought. Instead, she ended up with a $1.7 million dollar bill. Dr. Ashish Jha also joins David this week to help us figure out how the heck this happened.

Resources from the episode:

• ProPublica article on Lauren’s journey, by journalist Marshall Allen from Ep. 3: https://www.propublica.org/article/how-one-employer-stuck-a-new-mom-with-a-bill-for-her-premature-baby

Keep up with David on twitter @CHIDavidSmith.

Have you been hit with a surprise bill or had an infuriating run-in with the health care system? If you want to submit a patient story, email us at [e-mail] or leave us a voicemail at 833-453-6662.

Support for this podcast comes from The Commonwealth Fund, a health care research foundation working to improve the U.S. health system. Visit commonwealthfund.org/costofcare, and stay connected by following us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Commonwealth Fund: Affordable, quality health care. For everyone.

You can click this link for a full list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows.

To follow along with a transcript and/or take notes for friends and family, go to https://www.lemonadamedia.com/show/thecostofcare/ shortly after the air date.

Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.