THREAD

Wanna walk you through this story @jennifermeckles and I worked on yesterday.

It involves a really nice guy by the name of Michael.

He's in his 70s. Eligible for the vaccine in Colorado. He actually got an appointment for a shot...

There was just one problem...

That appointment was abruptly canceled when a billing person with the medical provider learned he owed $243.85 for a previous and unrelated appointment.

He is a cancer patient. He needs this shot.

Instead, he got this email from a Boulder Medical Center patient account rep

Michael was miffed. So was his partner. She contacted us to see if this was right.

In essence, she thought, a medical provider was holding a vaccine in the middle of a pandemic as ransom...

Sure did seem that way. So we headed up to Longmont for an interview.

As Jennifer Meckles interviewed the couple, I contacted both @GovofCO as Boulder Medical Center for comment.

Also contacted @COHealthAccess for comment... it agreed... this was wrong.

Eventually the CEO of Boulder Medical Center contacted me.

That CEO told me he would fix this.

And he did. By yesterday evening, he had called Michael to apologize and say there had been an error in the way the billing dept communicated this to Michael.

And guess what... today Michael received his first dose of the vaccine.

Problem solved, right?

Sort of. Having worked on medical billing issues for MANY, MANY years, I've settled on a simple idea that ideally isn't too controversial...

It shouldn't take a patient to contact @9news for a provider to budge!

Yet, here we are again

over the years, we have erased hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt for people.

i've had long conversations with medical providers all over the state. talked to more than a hundred patients.

I love the fact that our voice can get providers to do the right thing... BUT

I hate the fact that patients far too often feel like we're their last hope for resolution.

This is just a long-winded way of saying, I wish the system worked better than it does.

Anyhoo... here's last night's story...

thttps://www.9news.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/vaccine/medical-debt-is-not-a-vaccine-barrier/73-aec75a0d-90e2-48d9-9a63-242e8869baa1

We got a nice email from Michael and his partner this morning... it read, in part:

We couldn't have done this without you all. I am still wondering if all the other people who were "red flagged"... You have our deepest gratitude. Sincerely, Elizabeth and Michael

Bottom line... If someone gives you some reason why they can't give you a vaccine in the middle of a pandemic, assuming you're eligible, fight it.

no matter what. it should cost you NOTHING

Every person who gets this gets us one person closer to ending it.

-- fin

ONE MORE

just got this pic from Michael

Love to see this