Final summer time, Eloise Reynolds paid the invoice for her husband’s last keep within the hospital.

In February 2022, docs stated that Kent, her husband of 33 years, was too weak for the routine chemotherapy that had saved his colon most cancers at bay since 2018. He was admitted to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, not removed from their house in Olivette, Missouri.

Medical doctors found a partial blockage of his bowel, Reynolds stated, however she remained hopeful that his remedy would quickly resume.

“I bear in mind calling our children and saying, ‘OK, that is all actually excellent news. We simply must get him form of bolstered again up and feeling properly,’” she stated.

However years of chemotherapy had taken a toll on his physique, and he informed his spouse that he couldn’t go on any longer.

Kent was discharged and started hospice care at house. He died the following month at age 62.

When Reynolds obtained the invoice for the hospital keep, she paid the $823.15 it stated her husband owed. She scribbled “paid” on the invoice, memorializing the date, June 30, 2022 — the monetary endpoint, she thought, of Kent’s years of remedy.

Then the invoice got here (once more).

The Affected person: Kent Reynolds, deceased, had been coated by Blue Cross and Blue Defend of Illinois by means of his Illinois-based employer.

Medical Service: A 14-day hospital keep associated to problems from colon most cancers, together with {a partially} blocked bowel.

Service Supplier: BJC HealthCare, a tax-exempt well being system that operates 14 hospitals, largely within the St. Louis space, together with Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Complete Invoice: The hospital charged $110,666.46 for the keep earlier than any funds or changes. The insurer negotiated that worth all the way down to $60,348.77, and Reynolds paid the $823.15 the hospital stated the affected person owed. Then, a yr after her husband’s demise, she obtained a brand new model of the invoice from the hospital, charging her a further $1,093.16.

What Offers: Reynolds encountered a perplexing actuality in medical billing: Suppliers can — and do — come after sufferers to gather extra money for companies months or years after a invoice has been paid.

The brand new invoice stated Kent Reynolds had been enrolled in a fee plan and that the primary “month-to-month installment” on the practically $1,100 steadiness was quickly due.

She stated she known as each the hospital and Blue Cross and Blue Defend of Illinois looking for solutions however didn’t get an evidence that made sense to her.

Based on Reynolds, a BJC HealthCare consultant informed her that the insurer had paid greater than it owed, which means the well being system needed to reimburse the insurer and cost the affected person extra.

Reynolds stated she grabbed a yardstick to make use of as a straight edge and went line by line, evaluating each payments, to see what had modified, a job that evoked painful recollections of her husband’s final days. The quantity for every particular person cost — medicines, lab exams, provides, and extra — was the identical on each payments. The entire had not modified.

Solely three features of the invoice had modified: the changes; the quantity paid by the insurance coverage firm; and what the affected person owed.

Changes, or reductions, are quantities which may be subtracted from a medical invoice, usually underneath the supplier’s pre-negotiated contract with an insurer. Insurers and suppliers comply with decrease, in-network charges for companies offered to sufferers coated by the insurer.

Reynolds additionally obtained an EOB, or “clarification of advantages,” discover exhibiting the insurer reviewed the invoice once more in February, a yr after the hospital keep. The doc stated the hospital’s fees for her husband’s non-public room — amounting to just about $77,000 — have been greater than his well being plan’s negotiated room charges, which didn’t cowl the complete price.

The EOB famous that the affected person might nonetheless owe the hospital $50,216.31 for the room fees — a startling quantity — though Reynolds in the end obtained no invoice indicating she owed that a lot.

Reynolds stated she spent hours attempting to grasp the gadgets on the hospital and insurance coverage paperwork, since they used medical abbreviations and have been grouped in another way on the paperwork.

“It shouldn’t be this tough for a widow to determine what the medical payments have been,” stated Erin Duffy, a analysis scientist on the College of Southern California’s Schaeffer Middle for Well being Coverage and Economics.

Blue Cross and Blue Defend of Illinois declined to remark regardless of receiving a signed launch from Reynolds waiving federal privateness protections.

The Decision: Unclear about what had modified and the way a lot she owed, Reynolds held off on paying the second invoice. After KFF Well being Information contacted BJC HealthCare, Laura Excessive, a media relations supervisor for the system, stated the costs have been the results of a “clerical error.” Reynolds now not has a steadiness, Excessive stated in an e mail in Might.

“I used to be shocked by it,” Reynolds stated. “I’m satisfied most people I do know would have paid this.”

Excessive didn’t reply questions on the reason for the billing error or how typically such errors happen.

Nonetheless, Duffy offered a distinct clarification for the costs. “This doesn’t seem to be an error,” she stated. “It appears in keeping with their insurance coverage plan design.”

She stated it appeared the extra $1,100 cost — assessed a yr later — represented Kent’s coinsurance share of the non-public room fees, which she discovered as a recurring line merchandise on every web page of the invoice underneath the heading “Oncology/PVT.”

Whereas his coinsurance duty might have amounted to 10% of what the insurer paid in room fees — doubtlessly an enormous quantity — Kent had met his out-of-pocket fee most for the yr, so the costs didn’t attain the complete 10% of the room prices, Reynolds stated.

The Takeaway: In america, medical payments and insurance coverage statements create a burdensome puzzle for sufferers to type by means of to find out what is definitely owed. The primary rule of thumb is: “Don’t pay the invoice earlier than you’ve gotten the EOB,” which is the insurer’s accounting of what you owe and what the insurer pays, stated Kaye Pestaina, co-director of KFF’s Program on Affected person and Shopper Protections.

As well as, ask for an itemized breakdown of fees and examine it in opposition to the EOB.

Medical billing consultants stated standardizing phrases and different particulars on medical payments and EOBs would assist sufferers enormously on this endeavor.

Just a few states have taken steps towards giving sufferers extra details about well being care fees, together with by simplifying medical payments. In 2019, New York state lawmakers proposed requiring hospitals to offer sufferers with payments in plain language, together with an itemized listing of companies labeled as paid by the insurer or owed by the affected person. The proposal, which didn’t advance, required hospitals to ship sufferers a single invoice inside seven days of leaving the hospital.

Reynolds’ expertise highlights the dearth of legal guidelines and requirements round how lengthy suppliers need to invoice — and overview payments — for medical companies. Insurers might dictate of their contracts how lengthy suppliers need to submit claims; the Medicare program has a 12-month restrict to file claims, as an illustration. Nonetheless, Dave Dillon, a spokesperson for the Missouri Hospital Affiliation, stated no legal guidelines prohibit how lengthy suppliers need to ship a invoice to sufferers.

Collectors might search fee from a deceased individual’s property to gather no matter they’ll, stated Berneta Haynes, a senior lawyer on the Nationwide Shopper Regulation Middle. In Missouri, a residing partner may be held accountable for a deceased partner’s medical payments in sure cases, stated Terry Lawson, a managing lawyer for Authorized Companies of Jap Missouri.

Consultants stated they didn’t pinpoint something Reynolds might have performed in another way, noting that it’s the system that should change.

“When can she transfer on from these hospital payments?” Duffy requested.

Stephanie O’Neill Patison reported the audio story.

Invoice of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KFF Well being Information and NPR that dissects and explains medical payments. Do you’ve gotten an attention-grabbing medical invoice you need to share with us? Inform us about it!