Are We the Invisible Sufferers of the Healthcare System?
MySuperbills founder Anjali Prakash writes about a LinkedIn conversation that made her reconsider how invisible the burden of out-of-network care is to people who have never faced it, and how strangers in online support groups helped her through it when she felt most alone.
Yesterday, I had a conversation with someone I accidentally connected with on LinkedIn while I was searching for help with yet another claims issue in our messy healthcare system. It turned out he is one of those people who seems to know everyone in healthcare. Every name I mentioned, he knew. Every company, every corner of the ecosystem, he seemed to have some connection to.
And then he asked me a very simple question about MySuperbills:
“I just don’t know how big this problem is. I know it was a big problem for you.”
I was a little stunned. Because in that moment, I thought about what a privilege it is to move through life without ever really encountering this problem.
In my world, there are families who have depleted their life savings trying to save a child with severe mental illness or a substance use disorder because the treatment they needed was out-of-network. There are parents paying cash for autism evaluations, therapists, psychiatrists and specialists because the right provider doesn’t take insurance. There are couples spending thousands on fertility care. There are firefighters wondering whether they can afford the physical therapy they need to get back to work. There are families paying $300 a week for a nutritionist because that is the person their child with anorexia will actually work with and eat for.
And after paying all of that money, they are handed a superbill and essentially told: good luck.
This is my network. They are exhausted. They are Googling insurance terms at midnight, fighting denials, trying to understand allowed amounts, calling insurance companies during lunch breaks, and wondering whether they can afford the next appointment.
For a moment yesterday, all the years I spent fighting through healthcare for my own family flashed in front of me, and I felt strangely unseen all over again. But then I remembered the random moms and dads from Facebook groups and Reddit who would get on the phone with me when I was in crisis. People I had never met walked me through another insurance problem, another treatment option, another appeal, another impossible decision. They sat with me when they had absolutely nothing to gain from doing it.
And I am here now. I was never actually alone.
To everyone who has paid cash, walked out with a superbill, and wondered what on earth they were supposed to do next: you are not alone. I see you. We see you at MySuperbills. And we will walk with you.
MySuperbills is not a healthcare provider, insurance company, or legal advisor. We are a claim preparation and submission service. This article is general information, not medical or insurance advice.