An Arm and a Leg
An Arm and a Leg
An Arm and a Leg is a podcast about why health care costs so freaking much and what we can (maybe) do about it. If you’ve ever been surprised by a medical bill, you’re in good company. But as our team of seasoned journalists has learned from years of reporting — you’re not always helpless. We don’t have all the answers, but we’ll offer you tools and big picture insights with plenty of humor and heart. An Arm and a Leg is co-produced with KFF Health News and distributed in partnership with KUOW. You can support An Arm and a L...
Winning a two-year fight over a bogus bill
A few months ago, we got a note from a listener named Meagan, who wanted to thank us. She said the stories she heard on this show had given her the advice and encouragement she needed to finally win a fight against a medical bill she didn’t owe — a battle she’d been waging for more than two years. As Meagan tells us, those two years were filled with wild twists and turns and a lot of disappointment. We hear what kept her motivated and encouraged despite all the setbacks – and after an insurance
Mar 20, • 23:40
A medical-debt watchdog gets sidelined by the new administration
A federal agency called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — CFPB for short — has taken big steps to help people with medical debt. In early February, the Trump administration moved to effectively shutter the agency. We talked with credit counselor Lara Ceccarelli about how the CFPB has helped clients at the nonprofit where she works, and how she’s navigating the sudden change. And consumer-rights advocate Chi Chi Wu — an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center — describes the cou
Feb 27, • 19:31
Big news: Our ‘First Aid Kit’ newsletter is now weekly
Hey – real quick: some big news from the team at An Arm and a Leg. Our First Aid Kit newsletter is going weekly! First Aid Kit brings you advice from our show and more on how to survive and navigate America’s health care system. And allow us to introduce First Aid Kit’s new writer, Claire Davenport. When she was our intern last summer, she reviewed An Arm and a Leg’s entire catalog of episodes, and took notes along the way. Now she’s bringing the practical lessons from all that reporting strai
Feb 24, • 4:49
How do you deal with wild drug prices?
We’re kicking off a new reporting project about how much we pay for our medicine — and what we can maybe do about it — and we want to hear your stories. Because: Getting a case of sticker shock with a prescription happens all the time. So we’re asking: What have you done — or tried to do — to get the medicines you need at prices you can afford? And what did you learn that might be useful for other people to know? Maybe you learned a strategy that actually WORKED for you. Like using a coupon or
Feb 3, • 9:33
The ‘Shkreli Awards’ — for dysfunction and profiteering in health care
You remember a guy named Martin Shkreli? If his name rings a bell, it’s probably because back in 2015, he jacked up the price of an old drug — from around $13 a pill to $750. The media dubbed him “the pharma bro,” and he became a symbol of brazen pharmaceutical greed. Now, he’s the namesake for the Shkreli Awards — a kind of Oscars for the most outrageous examples of greed, fraud, and general brokenness in American health care. Every year, a health care think tank called the Lown Insti
Jan 16, • 25:26
This is An Arm and a Leg
An Arm and a Leg is a show about why health care costs so freaking much, and what we can (maybe) do about it. New episodes every three weeks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 6, • 0:57
A listener fighting the good fight
A few weeks ago, a listener sent us a note with a link to a news article about a new resolution that had recently been adopted by the American Medical Association – the largest group representing doctors in the US. The resolution said: hospitals need to do more to guarantee charity care to patients who qualify. Legislators and regulators should make them. Our listener was the author of that resolution, and he told us he first learned about charity care through this podcast. His na
Dec 30, 2024 • 11:47
Revisiting ‘Christmas In July’
Today we’re revisiting one of our favorite episodes from the archive – a story about giving – and bringing you an update. In 1980, a young father named Denny Buehler was battling leukemia and needed to travel from Cincinnati to Seattle for treatment. To raise the money, his friends and family threw a softball tournament. Denny passed away a few months later. But his friends and family turned the softball tournament into a beloved tradition, and a chance to give back. For more tha
Dec 12, 2024 • 27:19
New lessons from the fight for charity care
Longtime listeners to this show know we’ve been talking about something called “charity care” for years. Federal law requires that all nonprofit hospitals have charity care policies – that is, financial assistance policies — to reduce or remove people’s medical bills. The problem: people don’t know about it, and hospitals don’t always make it easy to access. New research suggests that the scale of this problem is huge: hospitals are failing to provide more than 14 billion dollars worth of c
Nov 22, 2024 • 28:06
Fight health insurance — with help from AI
Several listeners sent us an article with the headline Make your health insurance cry, about a new AI tool to fight health insurance. We had to learn more. Meet Holden Karau: a Bay Area software engineer who says she’s “trying to make health insurance suck a little bit less.”So she’s created an AI tool to appeal insurance denials.Her project, Fight Health Insurance, is a labor of love (she’s not earning money from it) and fueled by hatred (of insurance companies). It draws on her tech
Nov 1, 2024 • 22:28
Can racism make you sick?
Something different: We talk with journalist Cara Anthony about topics that don’t always come up in conversations about the cost of health care. For the last four years, she’s been reporting on the public health effects of racism, violence, and intergenerational trauma in a small Missouri town.. The result: A new documentary and podcast series called Silence in Sikeston. She sat down with us to talk about the value of breaking silences and the possibility for healing. Here’
Oct 17, 2024 • 24:34
Special Feature: A Beloved Nursing Home, from “To See Each Other”
We're sharing an episode of “To See Each Other,” about a question that’s SUPER-relevant to this show: How do we pay for long-term care, like nursing homes? To See Each Other aims to complicate the narrative about small-town Americans. In this new season, host George Goehl heads to Lincoln County, Wisconsin — population, 28,000-and-some. And home to a publicly-run nursing home with a 5-star quality rating from the feds. A conservative county board plans to sell the hom
Oct 1, 2024 • 31:48
“Baby steps” in the fight against facility fees
An $88 “observation room” fee for a check-up didn’t sit right with Kari Greene, a listener from Oregon. When the price went up to $99 the next year, Kari complained to her benefits rep; they thought it was weird, too — but couldn’t do anything about it. In states like Connecticut and Indiana, legislators are trying to do something about fees like these – often called “facility fees.” In this episode, we go deep on Kari’s bill, one of dozens that listeners have shared with us over the p
Sep 26, 2024 • 23:31
Anatomy of a Fall: One rural hospital’s ransomware story (from Click Here)
What happens when a hospital gets hit by a ransomware attack? We’re sharing an episode from a podcast called Click Here that takes us inside the aftermath of a cyber attack on a rural hospital in Oregon. The story starts the minute the hospital’s IT director finds out they’ve been hacked, and follows him and his colleagues as they scramble to keep the place running while they try to get it back online. It’s a fascinating adventure, and it gives us a window into the growing proble
Sep 5, 2024 • 27:10
Don’t get “bullied” into paying what you don’t owe
Caitlyn Mai expected her share of a recent surgery bill to be about $2,000, with insurance covering the rest. Then she started getting alerts on her phone from the hospital that she owed $139,000 — the full cost of her surgery. But Caitlyn, a legal assistant in Oklahoma, instinctively knew a cardinal rule of the American healthcare system — “never pay the first bill.” It’s a lesson we first heard from the journalist Marshall Allen, whose 2021 book Never Pay the First Bill serves a
Aug 15, 2024 • 24:11
We want to see your hospital bills
We’re starting a new investigation and need your help. We’re looking into something we’ve talked about a lot on this show: hospital financial assistance – also known as “charity care” — which most hospitals are legally required to offer. Something like 60 percent of people might qualify to have their hospital bills reduced or even forgiven through charity care — but of course nowhere close to 60 percent of people actually get that assistance. A lot of people just don’t know about it. (
Jul 25, 2024 • 3:06
The woman who beat an $8,000 hospital fee
Georgann Boatright's local hospital told her she'd need to pay an $8,000 "operating room" charge for a test she was pretty darn sure wouldn't involve an operating room. So she went elsewhere, even though it meant driving to another state.Avoiding that charge required more than just a willingness to go — literally — way out of her way. Georgann Boatright has knowledge, skills, and grit that most of us don't — although we can maybe learn a thing or two from her.More and more, people are notic
Jul 11, 2024 • 25:30
Coming soon: your stories on facility fees
For months now, you’ve been sharing stories with us about facility fees, those sneaky fees that keep showing up on your medical bills. Facility fees are kind of like a cover charge for visiting a health care facility, usually one owned by a hospital. And many of you have been blindsided by them. Some of you have been going to the same place for years, only to one day get a brand new charge, seemingly out of nowhere. Many of you only found out about a facility fee after the fact, while
Jul 3, 2024 • 2:02
Meet the Middleman’s Middleman
Folks who expected their health insurance to cover some out-of-network care have been getting stuck with enormous bills instead. Like one couple from Kansas City: Their insurance hung them out to dry for thousands of dollars, all while sending statements touting a “discount” the couple was supposedly getting. Turned out: A middleman was cutting their coverage — actually a middleman’s middleman — working with their insurance company. The couple’s insurer got the “discount,” and the middlemen
Jun 13, 2024 • 24:54
Staying on Medicaid seems tougher than it should be
We take our first look at Medicaid— the big, federally-funded health insurance program for folks with lower incomes— for two reasons: First, it’s a huge part of our health-care system. Medicaid covers a quarter of all Americans, and four in ten children. Second, it’s timely: In the last year, more than 20 million people have lost Medicaid — even though there’s evidence to suggest a lot of those people probably still qualify. More than two-thirds have been dropped for “procedu
May 23, 2024 • 23:05
We’re digging into “facility fees.” We need your help.
We’re launching a brand new project and need your help!We’re zooming in on charges that are becoming more and more common on your medical bills: facility fees. Facility fees are charges tacked onto your bill for visiting a doctor’s office or clinic related to a hospital or larger health care system… or even talking with a doctor who’s in one of those places on a telehealth visit. If you’ve ever seen a charge for a facility fee on your medical bill, we want to hear from you. ... an
May 2, 2024 • 10:22
The Hack
When a subsidiary of the giant UnitedHealth Group got hit by a cyberattack recently, a big chunk of the country’s doctors, pharmacists, hospitals and therapists just stopped getting paid. It’s been a huge disruption, with some providers wondering if they can keep their doors open.But thanks to their huge size and reach, the situation may have had a silver lining — for United.Which seems like a big problem, and got us wondering: What can we maybe do about it?The answer turns out to be: Maybe
Apr 11, 2024 • 21:38
Son of Medicare: Attack of the Machines
Reporter Bob Herman from STAT News unpacks his blockbuster investigation about the country’s biggest health care company. Covering the American health care system means we tell some scary stories. But this episode is almost like a horror movie. It’s got some of Hollywood’s favorite tropes: Machines taking over. Monsters from separate franchises meeting face to face in a new movie, like Godzilla and King Kong, or Jason and Freddy. And a couple perceptive folks warning everyo
Mar 21, 2024 • 30:05
The Medicare Episode
Health insurance sucks. Which leaves lots of us counting down the days until we turn 65 and can get on Medicare – the federal government’s health insurance program for seniors. But Medicare is a lot more complicated – and costs more money – than a lot of us realize. (Also, it involves insurance companies.) And:t There will be huge, complicated decisions to make when you turn 65, that can have huge consequences. The biggest, and most consequential: Choosing between original Medicare and
Feb 29, 2024 • 29:11
Wait, is insulin cheaper now?
A listener wrote to us at the beginning of the year with a query, “I was just reading the news about the price of insulin going down to $35! Is that for everyone?”It turns out, there is a lot of good news about the so-called “poster child” for the high cost of prescription drugs. But to say it costs $35 now is an oversimplification – and diabetes activists don’t think this fight is over.Senior producer and self-proclaimed “insulin correspondent” Emily Pisacreta took a hard look at the recent dev
Feb 8, 2024 • 25:17
Self defense 101: Keeping your cool while you fight
Dealing with the American health care system as a patient means lots of tough moments – unexpected bills, meds not covered, insurance and hospitals making you go back and forth without a clear answer, endless hold times and phone trees… the list goes on. So listeners ask us all the time: How do I stay strong and fight for my rights without totally losing my s---? We’re bringing back one of our most useful episodes ever: How to keep your cool in a tough moment, according to a self defen
Jan 18, 2024 • 24:57
One last tip before 2024
Real quick: Now's the best time to support this show! Thanks to a few super-star Arm and a Leg listener/donors, your donation is matched two for one right now. Here's the link to donate.Ok, now: We’ve got a mini-episode for you today, a four-minute coda to the epic story we brought you in December.It features a last tip for anyone who might want to ask a hospital about charity care — which, as we learned from these recent stories, is most of us.And it comes with my big thanks for being part of
Dec 28, 2023 • 4:13
When hospitals sue patients (part 2)
Hey! The BEST time to support this show with a donation just got even better. Right now, any gift you make, up to $1,000, will be matched TWO for ONE, thanks to a few super-generous Arm and a Leg fans who’ve pooled their dough. . It’s a great deal, and it will set us up to kick maximum butt in 2024. Here’s the link, go for it!And… are you ready for our most-ambitious story yet? We’ve been working on this investigation all year, with our partners at Scripps News and the Baltimore Banner. Wit
Dec 21, 2023 • 36:36
When hospitals sue patients (part 1)
Hey, it’s the BEST time to support this show with a donation. Thanks to NewsMatch, any gift you make, up to $1,000, will be doubled. It’s a great deal, and it will set us up to kick maximum butt in 2024. Here’s the link, go for it!We’ve been working on this investigation all year, with our partners at Scripps News and the Baltimore Banner. For years, we’ve been hearing about hospitals suing patients over unpaid medical bills – sometimes even in bulk, by the hundreds or thousands at a time.&
Dec 7, 2023 • 28:07
To get health insurance, this couple made a movie
Last fall, actor-writers Ellen Haun and Dru Johnston were hustling to get their health insurance sorted out for 2023. To qualify for insurance through the actor’s union, SAG-AFTRA, Ellen would have to book a little more work — doable, but not a sure bet. So they came up with a plan: crowdfund a bunch of money to make a short film, starring Ellen … called “Ellen Needs Insurance,” of course.It worked! And the movie, a 13-minute comedy, is terrific. Ellen and Dru sat down with us to go ov
Nov 16, 2023 • 18:42
“Your Money or Your Life”: Dr. Luke Messac’s book on the history of medical debt
In 2019, Dr. Luke Messac was a medical resident who found himself spending his day off in a courthouse archive. He’d heard about hospitals suing their own patients over unpaid medical bills. He wanted to know if the hospitals he worked in were doing the same. They were. Trained as a historian, Messac then set out to trace the history of this phenomenon, and the story of medical debt in the U.S.His new book, Your Money or Your Life is the result of that research. Luke Messac sat down wi
Nov 2, 2023 • 25:48
Paging Dr. Glaucomflecken: Presenting “The Nocturnists - Conversations: Will & Kristin Flanary (The Glaucomfleckens)”
First: an update on our recent two-parter with the writer John Green, about the global, decades-long fight to make an important tuberculosis drug more widely available. Just two days after we posted part 2, the activists waging that battle scored a major victory. John Green was kvelling on YouTube, of course. We’ll get you up to speed. And for the meat of this episode, we’ve got a guest a lot of you have been asking for: Physician/comedian Will Flanary, AKA Dr. Glaucomflecken.&nbs
Oct 19, 2023 • 1:04:13
John Green vs. Johnson & Johnson (part 2)
This is part two of our globe-spanning story about drugs, patents, and YouTube megastar John Green. Quick recap: In our last episode, we learned how writer and YouTube star John Green kicked up a fight with Johnson & Johnson over a medicine called bedaquiline. And appeared to score a victory.Here, we dig into the backstory: How everything John Green and his fans won was built on activism going back 20 years, and spanning multiple continents. All of it illustrates how pharma compani
Sep 28, 2023 • 26:29
John Green vs. Johnson & Johnson (part 1)
This episode is special. When we heard that widely-beloved writer John Green was rallying his online community around a fight over drug prices — and apparently making a difference — we were pumped. And this story took us in so many different directions: Literally around the world, and then straight back home.The drug in question is bedaquiline, made by Johnson & Johnson. It treats drug-resistant tuberculosis, and its price has been a huge obstacle to getting it to places it
Sep 7, 2023 • 22:48
Something's coming, something good.
Hey there— our next story is gonna take a little more time to cook, but it is going to be SO worth it. It involves John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars — and yes, we've got an interview with him — and a global fight against multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.... which turns out to be directly related to fights over the prices of drugs like insulin and humira in this country.Meanwhile, let me recommend a story from ProPublica that's related to a story we did here a few months ago.You migh
Aug 17, 2023 • 3:38
How to Get a Surprise Bill on Your Way to the Hospital
For a year and a half now, the No Surprises Act has protected patients from some of the most outrageous out-of-network medical bills. But Congress left something pretty crucial out of the law — bills from ground ambulances. We look at just how wild ambulance bills can be, with a story about three siblings who took identical ambulance rides — from the same car wreck to the same hospital — and got completely different bills. (Thanks to Bram Sable-Smith who reported the story for the Bill of t
Jul 27, 2023 • 19:45
Wait, what’s a PBM (and how do they work)?
If you’ve been told your insurance won’t cover your meds — or that you’re gonna have to pay an arm and a leg for them — you’ve met a PBM: a pharmacy benefits manager. And: Experts say they play a big role in jacking up drug prices overall. But how, exactly? We took a deep dive.This episode first went out in 2019. We’re bringing it back because PBMs are in the news these days: Congress is targeting them, in an effort to to be seen doing something about prescription drug prices. And
Jul 6, 2023 • 21:31
Credit Card, Please
A listener’s doctor wanted her credit card info up front — before her appointment. She wondered: Do I need to give it to them? We did too. After all, who wants the risk of being overcharged — and then having to fight for money back?Experts gave us their best advice, including a couple of tricks to try, and a legal protection you may be able to rely on. Meanwhile, Elisabeth Rosenthal, senior contributing editor at KFF Health News, filled us in on the rapid growth of medical debt as a fi
Jun 15, 2023 • 21:49
A ‘payday loan’ from a health care behemoth
When a New York doctor tweeted recently about “payday loans” for doctors from a branch of UnitedHealth Group — which operates the giant insurance company UnitedHealthcare — we were intrigued.Especially when we saw that the loan product — a “cash flow solution” for health care providers — was real.The doctor’s tweet essentially accused UHG’s insurance arm of causing cash flow problems for providers in the first place, by denying claims and delaying payments — which echoes complaints we’ve heard o
May 25, 2023 • 22:51
Mental health ‘ghost networks’ — and a ghost-buster
For lots of people, trying to access mental health treatment — like a therapist or a psychiatrist —is nothing short of a horror story. You could even call it a ghost story.A “Ghost network” is what researchers and journalists call it when your insurance plan offers a list of “in-network” providers that turns out to be bogus. Attorney Abigail Burman has studied this haunted phenomenon, and she’s become a part-time volunteer ghostbuster for people in her life. She’s here to share her tactics
May 3, 2023 • 24:41
A $229,000 medical bill goes to court
Before her surgery, a hospital told Lisa French she would end up owing them $1,337. After insurance paid them — more than they’d expected — the hospital billed her $229,000. And sued her for it. Her case went all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court. The questions before the court, and how they ruled, have potentially major implications for our legal rights when it comes to fighting unfair medical bills — and how some hospitals might be thinking about their next move. Here’s a tr
Apr 13, 2023 • 26:49
A doctor’s love letter to ‘the People’s Hospital’
What if we had a decent, publicly-funded health system — available to everybody, with or without insurance? We’ve got one, says Dr. Ricardo Nuila. It’s where he works. And it could be a model for the whole country. Yes, really. That’s the pitch he makes in his new book, The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine. It’s a love letter to Houston’s Ben Taub hospital, and an argument for bringing Ben Taub’s model — efficient, innovative, and cheap —to the rest of the country
Mar 23, 2023 • 28:59
Lessons from “wrestling with a giant”
The ER visit was quick and uneventful. The bill was $1,300. Our listener decided to push back. He didn't win, but he learned a lot — and so did we. We had help, from an expert we met by visiting a Renaissance Fair — which we did in this very fun early episode. Kaelyn Globig, head of advocacy for the Rescu Foundation, is a medical-bill wizard, and no one has taught us more.In this story, she teaches us how to find out what Medicare pays for a given procedure — here’s the guide she shared wit
Mar 2, 2023 • 19:41
The bill looked like BS. So she took it to small claims court.
“I sued a hospital in small claims court and lost — here’s what I learned.” That was the subject line for an email we got from listener Lauren Slemenda. She wrote: “I feel like I won” — and we knew we needed to talk with her.She wants to encourage more people to try taking providers to court over unfair bills. “If everybody that they screw stands up,” she says, “They can't afford to pay a lawyer to defend against all of those [cases].” It’s an interesting idea for sure — What if m
Feb 9, 2023 • 25:37
Can They Freaking Do That?!? (2023 Edition)
We’re kicking off the year with a throwback. We revisit a 2019 episode that opened up new possibilities for fighting back against outrageous medical bills — a theme we’ll spend a lot more time exploring this yearA listener named Miriam got a bill from a medical testing lab she’s never heard of, for $35. Then, a follow-up bill said if she didn’t pay up right away, that price was going up — WAY up: to $1,287. Which raises the kind of question that comes up a LOT with medical billing: Ca
Jan 19, 2023 • 21:25
2022 in Review
The Arm and a Leg editorial team gathered to talk about the moments from 2022 that we’ll never forget — including when work collided with real life. We’re so lucky we get to do this work, and we couldn’t do it without our community. From sending us your stories and questions, to supporting the show financially, our listeners and subscribers are what this show runs on. Thank you. If you want to help us take on 2023, now is a great time to contribute. This month, every dollar you donate
Dec 29, 2022 • 13:42
Like pulling teeth.
When a car hit Susan and knocked out a bunch of teeth, her health insurance was supposed to pay for her oral surgery, and she knew it. So why has she had to chase them for 18 months and counting? Getting insurance to pay for anything dental is usually hard, but this had us asking ourselves… is it usually this hard? We connected Susan with law professor Jacqueline Fox — who, when she was practicing law, fought insurers on behalf of patients. And who says Susan has “done everything right
Dec 19, 2022 • 25:46
The best video about health insurance, ever
A couple months ago, we started getting messages from listeners telling us: you gotta watch this video. It’s a thirty minute YouTube video from a creator named Brian David Gilbert, and it’s probably the best video about health insurance we’ve ever seen. Brian David Gilbert is best known for his highly-detailed, hilarious videos for Polygon, a media company about video games. But when he left that job to strike out on his own, he needed new health insurance. We talked with him about how
Dec 1, 2022 • 18:58
Health insurance post-Roe, and a grassroots network of abortion funds
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion has been banned in more than a dozen states. As you choose your insurance plan for next year, you might be wondering: How does that affect my insurance plan? We learned two big things. First: There’s no one answer (and few answers are settled yet). A lot depends on where you live, and where you work. But second: For lots of people, for a long time, insurance has rarely been a help in accessing abortion. Most people pay cash
Nov 17, 2022 • 26:06
A listener asks: Could NOT having insurance be a better deal?
It’s open enrollment for 2023 health insurance for lots of folks — a time when you might find yourself asking: what good is health insurance anyway? One listener wrote to us about his son, a student with no income. Dad asks, If the son could get charity care (financial assistance) at his local hospital…. should he bother getting health insurance? The big picture question: If you’re broke, and can’t get insurance from work, what are your best options? The big picture answer:&
Nov 3, 2022 • 26:44
Quick update from Arm and a Leg HQ
Hey there,You may have noticed, we've been keeping a slower pace for the last few months — publishing every three weeks instead of every two — since Dan recovered from COVID.And every-three-weeks is gonna stay our default for now. Putting out the show more often was wrecking Dan's health, and some important behind-the-scenes work just wasn't getting done. When we slowed down the podcast release schedule, we also suspended the First Aid Kit newsletter, which compiles our most-useful information f
Oct 20, 2022 • 5:11
California plans to make its own insulin and sell it super-cheap. Really.
This year, the state of California put up $100 million to produce its own insulin, and sell it for cheap. How’s it going to work? (Is it going to work?) The price of insulin could be the starkest example of our out-of-control health care system: More than 7 million Americans need it to survive, and some die because they can’t afford it— medicine that’s been around for 100 years, medicine its discoverers didn’t want to patent. We look at how California’s plan came to be, and what
Sep 29, 2022 • 19:26
Congress fixed (a piece of) Medicare. It only took a few decades.
Lots of seniors have to pay thousands of dollars for drugs—even tens of thousands—or do without life-saving medicine. That’s finally going to change. The new Inflation Reduction Act will set a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors. (Yes, it’ll do a bunch of other stuff too.) It took a long time. Folks like researcher Stacie Dusetzina spent years building evidence about how Medicare prescription drug policy was failing people with cancer and other conditions. The pharm
Sep 8, 2022 • 26:01
The Medical-bill "Negotiation Lab"
It’s often possible to negotiate medical bills. It sounds hard — and it can be — but what if we got it down to a science? Mapped out all the moves ahead of time? Jared Walker and his team at the nonprofit Dollar For are running a big experiment to see if they can do just that. And we got to visit the lab. The folks at Dollar For caught our attention — and lots of other people’s—when they went super-viral on TikTok with a 60-second recipe for crushing medical debt by accessing charity care,
Aug 18, 2022 • 23:59
The Genetic Testing ‘Bait-and-Switch’
Is it possible for a health care company to make enough people mad about their billing practices that it hurts their business? For one genetic testing company, maybe so. An Arm and a Leg listener Jessica got a test that’s become routine in early pregnancy: non-invasive prenatal testing. It was supposed to be $99. But then — after she took the test — that turned into $250. And when she asked questions, she was told it could go up to $800 if she didn’t pay up quick. , Jessica looked up the te
Jul 28, 2022 • 18:02
One ER Doc’s Journey Through the Pandemic — and the Health Care System
Thomas Fisher is an emergency room doc in Chicago. His book, The Emergency, is an up-close chronicle of the COVID pandemic’s first year in his South Side ER. It also zooms out to tell the story of his journey as a doctor: How his upbringing on the South Side fueled his desire to become a doctor. And how the realities and inequities of American health care limited his ability to help. He details how the failures of the American health care system — and the racial inequities it perpetuat
Jul 7, 2022 • 21:15
These docs are trying to kick private equity out of their ER
About a third of ER doctors now work for companies backed by private equity. A lot of those docs do not like the arrangement, which they say puts profits ahead of patients. Now, a group of ER docs are suing to kick one of those private-equity owned companies out of their hospital-- and all of California. They see it as the first step in a long, long fight. The suit cites California’s ban on the “corporate practice of medicine” — which is supposed to outlaw situations where non-doctors tell
Jun 16, 2022 • 21:42
Credit Where It’s Due
Credit reporting bureaus announced in April that they would start taking most medical debt off of people’s credit reports. At first, we weren’t sure that would be such a huge deal. After all, the medical debt would still exist, people would still get harassed by debt collectors, or even sued over it. But it turns out, there’s a bunch of reasons why these changes could be life-changing, and we want to give credit (the good kind) where it’s due. The changes include:Paid-off medical debt disap
May 26, 2022 • 17:37
“The Golden Age of Older Rectums” (for investors)
A new golden age is dawning, and it starts where the sun don’t shine.A listener got a pricey quote for her colonoscopy, but the medical practice behind it seems like “the only game in town.” We scope it out and learn the surprising reason why: Investors have decided your butt is a goldmine. Private equity investors have made their way into many areas of our lives. Now, they’re at the gastroenterologist’s —and lots of other medical specialists, too. We learned why these doctors are sell
May 5, 2022 • 19:56
Sick Note, pt. 2: Dang
Dan’s COVID has hung on there for a while, kept him SUPER tired. Yoinks. Back in a couple weeks!Meanwhile, as always, we'd love for you to:Get in touch to share a story or your thoughts. Subscribe to First Aid Kit, our newsletter about how to survive the health-care systemSupport us: Your donations are this show's biggest source of income.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apr 21, 2022 • 0:59
Sick Note: Dan has COVID. (He's fine, but ...)
Hey there — I got COVID a little before we were scheduled to tape this week's episode. Whoops! I'm fine now, but kinda tired. Just to be on the safe side — some people stay tired for a while — let's give me two weeks before we come back with a full episode.Meanwhile, I'll share this: I think one reason I got better quick was, I was able to get anti-viral meds. (Paxlovid, in my case.) And I mention this because: There's a new variant going around, BA.2, which looks like it's going to bring on a n
Apr 7, 2022 • 2:28
Fighting for the Right to Help
It’s illegal to advise someone who’s being sued for medical debt, unless you're a lawyer. Yep, really. Even in its most basic form (like helping people fill out a checklist) it’s considered the “unlicensed practice of law.” And it’s a crime. As in, you could go to jail.So some New Yorkers are suing to get that changed. The non-profit Upsolve wants to help people represent themselves in court when they’re being sued over debt. Their plan is to train people like pastors, social workers, and l
Mar 24, 2022 • 19:05
Swimming with sharks
Pharma and insurance companies play devious, clever games, competing for dollars. They’re sharks! It’d be fun to track, but they’re eating us alive.If anyone could beat the sharks at this game, we’d pick Lillian Karabaic, who runs the personal finance show/community called Oh My Dollar! — and is SUPER on-top-of her stuff. But Lillian recently got socked with an unexpected $3,000 charge— and expects to lose her very-organized fight against it.Understanding how Lillian got here
Mar 10, 2022 • 26:13
Introducing: Half Vaxxed
Last year we brought you the story — part caper, part tragedy — of how Philadelphia tried to hand off its COVID vaccination program to a wannabe tech bro right out of college. We built on the work of reporter Nina Feldman and her colleagues at WHYY. Now, they've laid out the entire thing in a podcast of their own, called Half Vaxxed. It’s terrific. Funny in places, horrifying in others, and full of lessons. We'll be back in a few weeks to start the next batch of Arm and a Leg episodes. Meanwhile
Feb 24, 2022 • 24:54
Introducing: Last Day
Stephanie Wittels Wachs has made the show about a topic that's actually too enraging, terrifying, and depressing for An Arm and a Leg: the opioid crisis. And it's as entertaining, empowering and useful as we could ever want. It's called Last Day. Here's episode 1. (In case you need convincing that it's entertaining, we'll tell you: In this episode, she interviews comedians Sarah Silverman and Aziz Ansari at length.)Part of what makes Last Day so good is that Stephanie is a great storyteller — as
Feb 10, 2022 • 41:13
Meet your new rights under the No Surprises Act
The No Surprises Act — a new law that protects us from some outrageous out-of-network hospital bills — takes effect this month. That's great news, but (and there’s always a but) there are some important caveats to know about. Like, for instance: these protections only apply to care you get in a hospital. Then there’s the deceptively-named Surprise Billing Protection form they might ask you to sign. And there’s more. We break down what you need to know about your rights under this new l
Jan 27, 2022 • 18:00
2022 update: How to avoid a big bill for your COVID test (feat. Sarah Kliff)
COVID testing—the kind they send to a lab— is supposed to be free in the U.S. But it’s never been quite that simple. We’re revisiting our sadly-still-relevant interview with Sarah Kliff from the New York Times, who joined us in November 2020 to share what she learned from reading hundreds of COVID testing bills. Her advice? Avoid the ER, do some research ahead of time, and ask if they’re going to do any other tests (which may not be covered 100%). We summed up some of her advice in a r
Jan 13, 2022 • 23:13
Our Year in Review, with members of the Arm and a Leg team
An Arm and a Leg wraps up a big year, and some of the team takes a moment to reflect. Consulting Managing Producer Daisy Rosario, Editor Marian Wang, and Associate Producer Emily Pisacreta join host Dan Weissmann in a conversation on why we make the show and what we look forward to doing in 2022. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 30, 2021 • 15:02
Why rapid COVID tests are so freaking expensive
Who’s making a buck: rapid test edition. Rapid, at-home COVID tests are pretty much essential if you want to see friends and family this holiday season, and stay safe. But they’re freaking expensive and can be hard to find. What the heck happened? When ProPublica reporter Eric Umansky went looking for COVID tests recently, he came back empty handed. He and fellow reporter Lydia DePillis investigated, tracing the US’s rapid testing problem all the way back to the FDA and other governmen
Dec 20, 2021 • 20:45
Fighting with health insurance is easy (for Jacqueline Fox)
Health insurance is like some medieval horror, says law professor Jackie Fox. But, funny thing: She also says insurance fights are easy. For her. She’s been helping people win them for 30 years.Jackie Fox has a lot to teach us. And class is in session.Here’s a transcript of the episode. Send your stories and questions: https://armandalegshow.com/contact/ or call 724 ARM-N-LEGAnd of course we’d love for you to support this show.This month, every dollar you donate is DOUBLED, thanks to N
Dec 9, 2021 • 19:02
How to avoid the crappiest health insurance.
We kick off with a wild ride: How one journalist almost got roped into a scam.While hunting for a new insurance plan, Mitra Kaboli got an offer that seemed too good to be true—but seemed to be coming from her current insurer. Mitra was skeptical, and it turns out, she had every reason to be. Dania Palanker from Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms unpacks this sketchy scheme, and gives us the key to avoiding it: When you're searching for health insurance... skip Google. Ser
Nov 24, 2021 • 24:53
The Insurance Warrior takes on a $61B Company
When Mattew Lientz needed surgery to save his life, his insurance wouldn’t cover it. Enter: Laurie Todd, the Insurance Warrior. Her first task: Figuring out who Matthew was really fighting, and how big the battle really was.Together, Matthew, his wife Diane, and Laurie made the case for Matthew’s life. Fourteen years later, the speeches they gave in a conference room full of insurance executives are a masterclass in winning insurance appeals — and living to tell the tale. The battle also il
Nov 11, 2021 • 24:20
Meet the Insurance Warrior
In 2005, Laurie Todd needed surgery to save her life. Her insurance company had no intention of paying for it. She went to war, and won. She's been helping other do the same ever since. Now, she's sharing her secrets with us.Psst: This month, when you support this show, every dollar you donate is DOUBLED, thanks to NewsMatch and the Institute for Nonprofit News.Holy cow. Here's the link.Also:Here’s a transcript for the episode. Send your stories and questions: https://armandalegshow.co
Nov 1, 2021 • 23:45
We spend 12 million hours a week on the phone with health insurance
Yup. A Stanford professor measured it. So… we should probably learn how they actually make money, understand their incentives. Here’s one clue: A lot of the time, providing insurance isn’t their real job. In this episode, we unpack what that means, and we start exploring how to put that knowledge to work. Here’s a transcript for this episode: https://armandalegshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/12-Million-Hours-An-Arm-and-a-Leg-Transcript-S6-Ep05-12.pdfSend your stories and questions: http
Oct 14, 2021 • 19:40
Wait, that was legal until now?!?
Hospitals in Maryland were suing patients over bills that should’ve been forgiven.It wasn’t illegal. Until now. How a coalition changed that. This year. Plus, our friends at Dollar For build their bill-crushing army, one Zoom training at a time. Need help applying for charity care for you or a loved one? We compiled a list of five helpful tips. Here's the transcript for this episode. Send your stories and questions: https://armandalegshow.com/contact/ or call
Sep 30, 2021 • 26:54
"We just kept right on pushing"
Manny Lanza died because he didn't have insurance. His parents fought back, with help from New York’s favorite tabloid. After years of work by advocates and organizers, laws suddenly changed. Here’s how.Here's a transcript for this episode.Send your stories and questions: https://armandalegshow.com/contact/ or call 724 ARM-N-LEGAnd of course we'd love for you to support this show.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sep 16, 2021 • 25:42
The wild backstory of a tiny but crucial Obamacare provision (ft. David Axelrod)
How one Republican senator made sure the ACA required non-profit hospitals to act more like charities—and less like loan sharks—before voting against the whole thing. The national requirement to offer charity care emerged from the Obama White House’s failed courtship of GOP Senator Chuck Grassley. We hear how that failed courtship almost tanked the ACA— and how the battle over the ACA “broke America”—from former Obama adviser David Axelrod, longtime reporter Julie Rovner and a top Grassley
Sep 2, 2021 • 26:02
A legendary lawyer sued hospitals for price-gouging their patients. And got his butt handed to him.
The lawyer was Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, the lawyer who beat Big Tobacco in the 1990s. Later, he launched a series of ill-fated national lawsuits aimed at getting non-profit hospitals to quit price-gouging low-income patients, and chasing them hard for payment. It... didn't go as well as the tobacco lawsuit, by a long shot. Scruggs did help start something that ended up making real change.For instance: We’ve been following the work of Jared Walker, who went super-viral on TikTok, spreading the w
Aug 19, 2021 • 23:18
We’re back! Starting Aug 19. And we’ve got some doozies for you.
We’ve been on a hiatus for a minute, and we are SO excited about what we’re coming back with.These are stories we’ve been collecting for months—some of them for more than a year—and they’re big. One of them turns out to be about how change actually happens. Which for a show about the cost of health care—one that promises (and we do) to be entertaining, empowering, and useful—change is important. And, as horrible as things are right now, we’ve been learning: some things used to be worse
Aug 5, 2021 • 2:36
Badass volunteers help Jared level up, in the fight to crush medical debt
An update on Jared Walker, whose viral TikTok described a little-known (and effective) method to “crush” many hospital bills, and offered to help folks deploy it. Since then, he's been responding to thousands of requests for help—and building a system to respond more effectively, thanks to a small army of whip-smart volunteers. Jared’s non-profit, Dollar For, has got that system up and running. So: If anyone you know has a hospital bill they can’t pay, the system can quickly tell them
Jul 15, 2021 • 10:49
A whole book about fighting effed-up medical bills? Yes, please.
For years, at ProPublica, Marshall Allen has been exposing health care grifters. (He’s our kind of guy.) Now, he's written a book … about how to fight back. It’s called “Never Pay the First Bill.” We talked—about some of his best tips, about how you can’t win ‘em all, and about why it’s worth learning all you can and giving it your best shot.Marshall compares the U.S. health-care "system" to the bully he faced in 7th grade. Big, stupid, mean. And SOMETIMES—as he learned in junior high--you
Jun 30, 2021 • 19:05
Want to write a killer letter to insurance? Meet Jeannine.
Health care insiders get stupid medical bills too. One of them taught us how to write an insurance appeal—like the one that saved her son $14,000. You can read that letter—and her notes to us about why she chose to include certain words and key facts—right here: https://armandalegshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Appeal_letter_2020_redacted_with_comments.pdfWe met Jeannine after our host addressed a conference of “industry insiders.” It wasn’t much fun. But this makes it all worthwhile.Links!
Jun 9, 2021 • 12:56
Mini-episode: One guy skirts a medical-bill trap, and shares the secret.
When Adam Woodrum's insurance denied a claim for an ER bill, he sent his story to NPR... because he happened to KNOW how to deal with it. And he figured it would be a friendly thing to share what he knew. (Kudos, Adam!)This story was originally reported by Julie Appleby for our pals at Kaiser Health News, and KHN editor-in-chief Elisabeth Rosenthal weighs in at the end. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 19, 2021 • 7:24
Why picking the right insurance is so hard (bonus/encore)
How hard is it to pick the best health insurance? ECONOMISTS find it hard. Including one who has studied the question, "How hard can it be to pick a decent insurance plan?"Lots of people are suddenly eligible to pick possibly-cheaper health insurance thanks to the American Rescue Plan—the big stimulus bill Congress passed in March—so we thought it could be useful to bring this 2018 story back.Also useful: This essay from health-care reporter Zachary Tracer about how he picked his health insuranc
Apr 28, 2021 • 20:14
Programming note: We're working on some cool new stuff.
... and it's gonna take us a little while to get it ready for you— maybe a couple months. Meanwhile, we'll have little updates for you here and there.... and it's a great time to sign up for our newsletter, where we'll have details on what's next, and stories we think you'll be interested in.Here's where to go: https://armandalegshow.com/newsletter/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apr 7, 2021 • 1:35
Who's been trying to cash in on COVID vaccinations? (And how did racism help them out?)
With COVID vaccinations ramping up, it's time to check in: Who's been trying to make a buck? And who's been doing their best to serve the folks who need help the most? In Philadelphia, the good, the bad, and the ugly have all been on vivid display.The Bad comes with a giant serving of chutzpah: For a while, the city put its mass-vaccination program in the hands of a 22 year-old with no experience in health care, but with a healthy interest in making money. It did NOT go well. (You may have seen
Mar 17, 2021 • 31:43
Revisiting insulin, as relevant (and expensive) as ever
We're re-releasing and updating a story we first reported in 2019, about how insulin got to be so horribly expensive—the scientists who discovered it did NOT want price or profits to keep it away from people who need it—and what some people are doing about it, today.The story seems especially relevant right now, for two reasons:the COVID vaccine process has reminded all of us how vital it is to BOTH get breakthroughs in the lab AND to make sure everyone can afford to benefit from them.The second
Feb 25, 2021 • 31:07
A legal strategy for erasing billions in medical debt— that works—from a 60-second video.
Yep. This viral TikTok video's recipe for "crushing" medical bills is legally sound. And IRS filings from thousands of hospitals attest to $2.7 billion of crush-able debt from a single year— a number that experts say looks more like a floor than a ceiling. Of course, it'll take a lot of work to actually zap those debts. But Jared Walker is off to a promising start. His organization, Dollar For, had already helped wipe out millions in medical bills before he made that video. Hosted on Acast. See
Feb 11, 2021 • 26:29
A former "bad guy" lawyer shows us how the dark machinery works. And our rights.
Jeff is a lawyer who used to represent medical-bill collectors in court. ("I was a bad guy, for sure," he says.)But he switched sides, and he's here to tell us what he knows. For instance, we have more rights than we probably know.It can be tough to get them enforced, but he's got some tips there too.And his portait of how the dark machinery works is... kind of hilarious.Here's a transcript for this episode.Send your stories and questions: https://armandalegshow.com/contact/ or call 72
Jan 28, 2021 • 24:04
Mini-episode: Two small doses of good news
2021 is off to a rough start, but we've got a couple of small things that don't completely suck.First, a new federal rule could help cut through one completely-ridiculous issue. Then, a listener describes how he headed off an insurance nightmare, using what he learned from this show.Dan talked about the first story—a requirement that hospitals give us some information upfront about what a given service might cost us (after insurance, if we've got it)—in a short conversation with Niala Boodhoo fo
Jan 14, 2021 • 10:50
A 21st-century Christmas Carol: How one Scrooge became a health-care whistleblower
Former health-care executive Wendell Potter spent part of 2020 publishing high-profile apologies for the lies he says he told the American people in his old job—and trying to debunk the myths he once sold. The story of how he became a whistle-blower is a modern-day Christmas Carol. And it's a story about the long, messy process of change—whether that’s changing your own life or trying to change a bigger system. It’s a great way to close out a pretty-terrible year.Another chee
Dec 29, 2020 • 21:58
From our reporter's notebook: What we learned in 2020, and what's ahead, with T.K. Dutes
This episode turns the tables: Host Dan Weissmann gets interviewed about what he's learned this year, and what's ahead for the show— with T.K. Dutes, an ace radio host and podcast-maker ... who was a nurse in a previous life, so she knows a thing or two about the health-care system. (She chronicled her career transition in an episode of NPR's Life Kit.)And here we learn: During her nursing career, she was uninsured. She's got some stories about life before-and-after health insurance.T.K. also co
Dec 18, 2020 • 23:30
Fight! My family tries to pick health insurance for next year. COVID makes it harder.
Keeping the plan we've got means paying $200 a month more. But... would a "cheaper" plan cost us more in the long run? It depends! And COVID makes it a lot more complicated. This stinks.You can hear my wife and me try to puzzle the whole thing out, and then I debrief with an expert. Who leaves me reminded how lucky we are to have the options we do. HEALTH INSURANCE SUCKS.But the alternative is so much worse.If you want to go deeper on health insurance, you might want to check these episodes
Dec 11, 2020 • 19:14
Andy Slavitt gives us a COVID check-in from 40,000 feet
Andy Slavitt, who ran a big chunk of health care for the Obama administration, has spent 2020 talking with almost everybody who knows anything about the COVID pandemic— and sharing what he learns in real time, first on Twitter, then on his pandemic podcast "In the Bubble." When we wanted an episode taking a look at the big picture—what we've learned so far from the pandemic and what we might expect next—Andy was the person we wanted to talk to. And he said yes!We got into the money side of what
Dec 4, 2020 • 27:40
How to avoid a big bill for your COVID test: with Sarah Kliff of the New York Times
They're supposed to be free. And usually they are. But sometimes... things happen. Here's how to keep them from happening to YOU.New York Times reporter Sarah Kliff has been asking readers to send in their COVID-testing bills. She's now seen hundreds of them, and she runs down for us the most common ways things can go sideways, and how to avoid them.Here's Sarah's NYT story that inspired this episode.Support us: During November and December 2020, your donation counts for DOUBLE, thanks to a camp
Nov 23, 2020 • 21:51
How to Keep Cool in a Tough Moment: A self-defense expert breaks it down
Possibly our most-useful episode ever. A listener asked: How do I remain cool when calling insurance companies?We called a veteran self-defense teacher— because self-defense means a lot more than hitting and kicking. It's about standing up for yourself in all kinds of difficult situations. Which means using your words.Lauren Taylor talks us through some of her top strategies, and how she used them this year in her own epic health-insurance fight.Send your stories and questions: https://arma
Nov 12, 2020 • 27:56
David v Goliath: How to beat a big hospital (using small claims court)
In a classic—and hilarious—David vs. Goliath story, Jeffrey Fox takes on a huge hospital over an outrageous bill, and wins.He's a bit of an expert in using small claims court to get satisfaction, and he's got detailed instructions for all of us.Here's his first lesson: The other side—no matter how big they are, and no matter what they say to you—doesn't actually get to make the rules. Not the LEGAL rules.The details of how he got to victory in this case are super-entertaining, and super-satisfyi
Oct 29, 2020 • 22:35
How to handle debt collectors, with the TikTok Mom and a legal expert
There's a reason Shaunna Burns went viral with her videos about dealing with debt collectors: She used to be one, so she knows a few things. (Also she's smart and funny.) We fact-checked her advice with a legal expert: Jenifer Bosco, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center. Who said: Yep, most of Shaunna's advice totally checks out.This one's full of useful tips—and it's fun— so please pass it around. Debt collectors are out in force, and as you'll hear in this episode, they can b
Oct 15, 2020 • 28:09
Your TikTok Mom has some medical-bill tips, and a hell of a story
Forty-something mom Shaunna Burns went viral on TikTok, thanks in part to a series of videos dishing out real-talk advice on fighting outrageous medical bills. She's become the virtual mom that thousands of Gen-Z followers love. She's funny, smart, and relatable—and she's got stories that'll make your hair stand on end. (Yep, medical bills figure into some of them.) Oh, and she can swear like a f---ing sailor. So maybe save this one for when the kids aren't around. Send your stories and que
Oct 1, 2020 • 25:07
A Blast of Hope and Humanity: Here's what perseverance looks like
Laura Derrick fought and endured for decades. When medical bills threatened to swamp her family, she made huge sacrifices, worked unbelievably hard... and helped change the course of history. In a moment when we're all enduring a LOT, it seemed like a great time for Laura's story. It's one of the first stories we ever told on this show, and it has special resonance right now. Bonus: We catch up with Laura for an update. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sep 17, 2020 • 27:15
She tangled with health insurance every day for 25 years. And loved it. Here's what she can teach us.
Barbara Faubion got up every day psyched to go to work—which she says puzzled her friends. “They’d go, ‘You love your job?!? You spend your whole day talking to an insurance company. Are you kidding me?’”She wasn’t kidding. Because she loved to win—and she was really, really good at untangling other people’s health-insurance problems. She's here to teach us what she knows.And we'll learn something else too, from a conversation with ProPublica reporter Marshall Allen: Why doesn't EVERY
Sep 3, 2020 • 25:31
How to fight like a bulldog (against bogus medical bills)
Steve Benasso is an HR director who, his colleagues will tell you, hates insurance companies, and hates seeing people getting taken advantage of. So he fights off weird medical bills and bogus insurance denials for those colleagues. "I am a bulldog on this stuff," he says. "I do it every month." And on this episode, he tells us how he does it. Send your stories and questions: https://armandalegshow.com/contact/ or call 724 ARM-N-LEGSupport us: https://www.patreon.com/armandalegshow Hosted on Aca
Aug 20, 2020 • 23:17
Financial self-defense school, now in session: Make your own luck.
If you need medical care, it's like you've entered a casino, playing for your financial life, with the deck stacked against you. Lucky for us, we get insight — and tips the dealer WON'T tell you— from ace reporter Celia Llopis-Jepsen.To start with, she got an executive from a health-care company to talk honestly — maybe more honestly than he realized — about how his company and others are playing the game, when they send patients bills for huge amounts.Here's what else she found, when she invest
Aug 6, 2020 • 27:39
We’re back! Dealing with the cost of health care seems pretty relevant right now.
There's no time like a pandemic to (a) learn to fight back against the awful cost of health care. And (b) have a good time doing it. Yep. Let’s go. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 27, 2020 • 2:06
The hug shortage, the new abnormal, and the $7,000 COVID test. What we've learned in SEASON-19
We wrap up our COVID-19 popup season with stories from three folks with very different takes on what we've learned so far about what the pandemic is costing us: A doctor and advocate in Brooklyn looks back on the wave of black and brown patients that filled her clinic in March. A nurse-practitioner in Texas looks at how new tech is—and isn't—helping the older patients she cares for.And: One of the country's top insurance nerds says her first policy ideas to keep people from getting stuck with hi
May 27, 2020 • 22:12
How Katelyn survived COVID—without going bankrupt. (Not easy. She has tips.)
In early April, Katelyn was in a financial bind: Home sick with COVID, she hadn't been paid in weeks. And bills were due. "My landlord is kinda beating down my door right now," she said in a voicemail to our hotline.Weeks later, Katelyn got back in touch: She had made it through, thanks to a combination of playing hardball with one company and knowing how to play nice with others.Because of her job, she had an insider's understanding of the playing-nice process: Katelyn works in collections for
May 20, 2020 • 21:54
From inside the health insurance company: Angst, and advice we can use.
A listener, who has worked in health insurance for decades, wrote in. "I have listened to all the episodes in this podcast, and there are times I come away feeling bad working for the insurance company."We talked. Along with angst, she shared insights and advice we all can use. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 13, 2020 • 16:32
The severe, weird recession... in health care. And what it means for our wallets
You've probably noticed: The U.S. economy is crashing.Something you may not have noticed, that may sound really weird: Almost half of that economic devastation comes from just one sector.And that sector? It's health care.If that sounds completely backwards, it is. Except in the world of how we pay for health care in this country.Because even though we as a society need health care workers like never before, to fight COVID...... we-as-individuals are avoiding doctors' offices and hospitals for ev
May 6, 2020 • 18:12
COVID tests are free, except... when they're not
Anna's insurance company said it would pay 100 percent for COVID-related testing. And then they left her to pay a giant bill.She got help, thanks to a viral tweet, but... her story exposes big loopholes in consumer protections. We learn how to avoid falling in.And: The way people responded to her tweet was generous, moving, and... complicated. Uncomfortable. Weird. Even with everybody doing their absolute best. (And, we should say, with as happy an ending as any of us get these days.)Anna's stor
Apr 29, 2020 • 21:13
Like a fire with no one to call: 'We've left no latent capacity in health care.'
Ryan Gamlin spent a decade working on the financial side of health care, before going to medical school. Now, as an anesthesiologist in Los Angeles, he’s on the front lines fighting COVID-19, an experience he describes as “scary, in a way that I never expected to be scared, going to work.”He was scared one day last summer, too, when a California wildfire came within feet of the hospital where he was working. And then a fleet of fire trucks showed up to protect the hospital. “City, county, p
Apr 22, 2020 • 17:05
If I get COVID-19, what good will my insurance do me?
Lots of people have insurance plans that only cover them with certain places —providers, certain hospitals.But: in a COVID pandemic surge, who knows if you'd end up one of those places? And if you end up someplace else... then what?That’s the question we got from a listener named Becky in Minnesota. She's got a Bronze plan — it only covers a limited "network" of providers— and she's got a $6,000+ deductible.With officials talking about converting sports arenas into makeshift hospitals, Becky say
Apr 15, 2020 • 32:04
Makers unite: Speeding PPE to a COVID hospital
We kick off SEASON-19, about the cost of COVID, with a dose of hope — a story about an unlikely chain of people coming together to speed PPE to a COVID hospital in Brooklyn. NYC is a couple weeks ahead of the rest of the country, we think, so there are lessons here we can all get ready to use. Especially this: Don't be afraid that what you have to offer isn't enough. Take the step in front of you, even if it's a little one.Here's a couple ways to startYou can donate to that effort to get PPE to
Apr 6, 2020 • 20:55
Whoa. Welcome to SEASON-19
We were not expecting to bring the next season out for another couple months, but... STUFF has been happening. Is happening. We're here with you. Bring us your stories and your QUESTIONS: We'll ask the smartest people we know to tell us all what they know. go to https://www.armandalegshow.com/contact OR call our **hotline**! Yep: (724) 276-6534 -- which spells 724 ARM N LEG. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 30, 2020 • 1:42
Reporter's Notebook: What we've learned so far, and what's ahead.
This bonus episode turns the tables: Ace reporter Sally Herships interviews Arm and a Leg host Dan Weissmann, about what he's learned so far, and what's ahead for the show. \They dig into the stories listeners are sharing -- the lessons people say they’re learning, and the lessons they’re sharing.And Dan previews the celebrations in store as the show hits a landmark: 500 Patreon supporters! If you haven't signed up already, there's still time to join us -- sign up by March 1 -- and earn some spe
Feb 14, 2020 • 33:45
Watch Your Back: Outwitting the Back-Pain Industry
Cathryn Jakobson Ramin, an investigative reporter with a bad back, spent years researching the $100-billion back-pain industry. She found that the most commonly-prescribed treatments, including surgery, frequently do not work — and often leave people a lot worse off. She also learned what does work. Whenever someone I know says their back is killing them, I send them a link to Ramin's 2017 book, Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry. In this episode, we hit the highlights of Ramin's finding
Jan 2, 2020 • 28:59
Christmas in July
How one family's tragedy became, decades later, a $1 million gift to their neighbors. This story has everything: Laughter. Tears. Family. Community. Generosity. Softball. AND: Punk rock. John Oliver. A taco bar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 26, 2019 • 26:17
This hospital sued thousands of patients — until a reporter called them out.
They say the problem with relying on journalists to embarrass providers into caving on crazy bills is, there aren’t enough journalists to go around. Fair. But sometimes journalists can scale up.In Memphis, reporter Wendi Thomas found that the city’s biggest hospital routinely sued its patients over unpaid bills, despite making tidy profits. The hospital even sued its own badly-paid employees — a fact Thomas said was immediately visible just by visiting the court house. “You saw them, t
Dec 19, 2019 • 23:21
Can they freaking DO that?!?
A woman got a bill from a medical testing lab she’s never heard of, for $35. Then, a follow-up bill said if she didn’t pay up right away, that price was going up — WAY up: to $1,287.Which raises a question that comes up a LOT with medical billing: Can they freaking DO that?!?Can some random lab hit you up for money — and then threaten you with a late fee of more than $1,000??On this episode, we go find out.This was fun. We'll do it again. Next time you want to know, Can They Freaking DO Tha
Dec 12, 2019 • 27:39
Why can't they tell you the price upfront?
Sarah Macsalka has seen the stories about how expensive an emergency room visit can be, even for a minor complaint.So when her seven year-old son Cameron gashed his knee on a weekend morning in June, the ER was NOT where her family headed first.In fact, Macsalka did just about everything she could to avoid paying a big, fat bill to get Cameron’s knee stitched up — and ultimately failed.For instance, she took Cameron first to a local urgent-care clinic, but was told they didn't have anesthetic. S
Dec 5, 2019 • 26:22
Health Care: The Musical
It would sound a LOT like Explanation of Benefits, which is a musical revue that actually played in New York City in 2019.... so it would feature a parody of "Bills, Bills, Bills" — the 1999 Destiny's Child hit —rewritten for the age of GoFundMe.And it would have smart, funny musical numbers tracing the long, sad history of the U.S. health care industry.Welcome to our musical episode! And thank you to the young NYC troupe Heck No Techno for creating Explanation of Benefits.Our episode isn't
Nov 27, 2019 • 22:17
My Neighbor the Health-Care Ninja
Meredith Balogh has spent years learning to navigate the financial side of the health-care system. She’s a type-one diabetic, she’s never had a lot of money, and for years she didn’t have health insurance.It hasn’t been easy, but she’s become a master. “There's only three things that you're fighting,” she says. “Problems with competence, problems with greed and problems with maliciousness. And luckily most things are incompetence.”She has saved herself and her family many thousands of dolla
Nov 21, 2019 • 29:52
Mom vs. Texas
Stephanie Wittels Wachs has a daughter born with hearing loss, which is how she found out insurance didn't cover hearing aids for kids. Those start at $6,000 and only last a few years. Stephanie teamed up with a few other moms to change Texas law... and won.Stephanie is a terrific storyteller. She's the author of Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful, a memoir about grieving her brother, Harris Wittels, a writer for TV comedies like Parks and Recreation, who died of a heroin overdose.... and she
Nov 14, 2019 • 28:53
Hey there! Season 3 is coming November 14. Here’s a preview.
It’s going to be REALLY fun. Also, maybe useful. Catch you here soon!Also, here’s a little video preview.Bonus news: Did you know we're nominated for an award as a TRUE CRIME show? Almost too perfect. Everything on this show is legal, and that's the true crime. Here's a link — please pass it around!Wanna share it with folks? Be our guest! Here it is on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Vimeo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 31, 2019 • 2:23
A place where they do health care more cheaply and effectively. (And yes, it’s in the U.S.)
For our Season 2 finale, time for some inspiration.For 30 years, James Gingerich has run a super-effective clinic in Indiana, delivering great results at low cost — to high-need, low-income patients.James Gingerich stands in front of shelves holding books that Maple City Health Care Center distributes to families with young children.He’s not a modest guy, and two of his brags stand out — as a study in contrasts.One is a quote from a board member that makes him sound like a big dreamer:“People th
Jul 31, 2019 • 22:57
An actor walks into a doctor’s office…
Dr. Saul Weiner is a physician and researcher at Jesse Brown VA Medical Center and the University of Illinois at Chicago. (Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin)Researcher Saul Weiner has been sending fake patients — actors, wired for sound — into real doctors’ offices, to learn about what actually happens, especially: How well doctors really listen to their patients.He’s tallied up what doctors miss (a lot), and how much it costs (ditto). In today’s episode, we hear what actually happened in one of
Jul 24, 2019 • 17:56
Whoa, this medical device is spying on me. In my sleep. So my insurer can deny me coverage.
That’s the rude awakening Eric Umansky got when he called the company that provided his CPAP machine — a device that helps him breathe at night.He got mad. And he got even, in a way: Eric is an editor at the non-profit newsroom ProPublica, and he tipped a colleague —Marshall Allen, who covers health care there.The two of them together, in this episode, are hilarious and enlightening.The story Marshall wroteopened up bigger issues about how insurance companies are collecting all kinds of data to
Jul 17, 2019 • 16:58
The surprising history behind insulin’s absurd price (and some hopeful signs in the wild)
The price of insulin is iconic — doubling, tripling, multiplying like crazy, for medicine Type 1 diabetics can’t live without.To understand it, we went back almost 100 years and dug up a story of sweaty Canadian researchers — swatting away flies and doing business with probable dog-nappers, on the way to a Nobel Prize… and a deal with corporate pharma.Charles Best and Frederick Banting on the roof of the University of Toronto medical building, petting a dog they probably picked up from some shad
Jul 10, 2019 • 26:36
Coming next week: The price of insulin
As we started working on season two of this podcast, there was one topic that seemed like we just had to look at: insulin.… and I wondered: There are stories about insulin prices everywhere. Would we really have something to add? Something that wasn’t just more of the same? (Enraging, terrifying, depressing.)Turns out: OH YES WE DO.And some of it is… hopeful.We are holding it back a week, so you can take a break for the holiday, come back fresh, and be ready for something epic. Se
Jul 3, 2019 • 1:53
Why are drug prices so random? Meet Mr. PBM
I filled a prescription recently, and the drugstore said they wanted more than 700 bucks… for an old-line generic drug. My insurance ended up knocking that down, but it was WEIRD. And it meant a big homework assignment for me.Luckily, I got help. Both from some experts, and from the classic Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life (source of the pictures above and below, of course).I mean, what I actually learned was not a hundred percent cheerful.We get these unpredictable prices thanks to co
Jun 26, 2019 • 18:29
How much for an MRI? Well, that depends…
This week, we look at three MRIs with four different price tags, and an enormous range. Liz Salmi and a view of her brain. (Photo: Kaiser Health News)The first two price tags come from listener Liz Salmi, who has been living with brain cancer for more than a decade.Liz gets MRI scans twice a year, to make sure the cancer isn’t growing. A couple years ago, Liz changed insurance, changed providers… and got serious sticker-shock when she saw the bill for a scan: $1,600 — AFTER insurance.S
Jun 19, 2019 • 22:00
To get paid, hospitals get creative
Hospital bills are too high, and insurance doesn’t cover enough. Turns out, that’s a crisis for hospitals too: more and more of us aren’t paying those bills, because we can’t. So, they’re getting creative about collecting — and offering discounts. Which raises questions about why the bills are so high to begin with.Photo courtesy James CrannellWe start with Chicago woodworker James Crannell, who — and there’s no non-scary way to say this — stuck his finger in a table saw.Even more scary: He
Jun 12, 2019 • 15:30
We thought we had adulted properly
Caitlin and Corey Gaffer got a surprise letter from their insurance company — saying they were being dumped for non-payment. Except, as far as they knew, they were paid up.As it turned out, they’d made a couple of small mistakes, which they were eager to fix. But their insurer was definitely not interested. Caitlin and Corey spent fruitless weeks on the phone.And then, Caitlin’s pregnancy — more than six months along — ran into complications.They scrambled for months to get covered, while rackin
Jun 4, 2019 • 23:30
We’re back! Here’s a taste of Season 2, launching June 4.
Hey there! We’ve been working hard on season 2. We hope you enjoy this preview — there’s so much good (and frightening) stuff ahead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 23, 2019 • 2:06
A “deal” on health insurance comes with troubling strings
Bari Tessler is a little famous as a “financial therapist,” but even she gets rattled by the price of health care.Her story is complicated. And very relatable.Bari chose to use a Christian "health share" instead of regular insurance. It's cheaper, but it comes with strings: Things the group doesn’t cover, limits on their obligations to you… and a religious vision that not everybody is comfortable with. Including Bari.She sees it, for now, as the least terrible of a bunch of terrible options — bu
Dec 19, 2018 • 22:03
Why are ER bills so horrible? Sarah Kliff spent a year finding out. (Season One, episode 7)
Emergency rooms often bill you a “cover charge” just for walking in the door, and it can be thousands of dollars.That’s in addition to the huge markup on everything that happens there: seven bucks for a band-aid. Twenty dollars for a couple of pills.Reporter Sarah Kliff has collected more than a thousand ER bills from her readers at Vox.She was an expert on health care before starting this project — she covered it for years at the Washington Post before moving to Vox — but even she found plenty
Dec 12, 2018 • 19:26
Why Health Insurance Actually Sucks (Season One, episode 6)
Turns out, insurance companies allow — even encourage — crazy price-gouging by hospitals. For example, the leg brace Blake needed was available for $150 on Amazon. But thanks to his insurance, he paid more than $500.Investigative reporter Jenny Gold’s work helps us understand how that kind of thing happens.She compares health care to shopping for a gallon of milk.“We can look at the cost of a gallon of milk at lots of different stores and decide which one is the best,” she says.At the store, the
Dec 5, 2018 • 16:32
So, Robin Hood’s got an approach to medical bills. (Season One, episode 5)
The health-care system — especially the financial side — can feel like a Medieval torture device. So maybe it fits that workers from Renaissance fairs have come up with a work-around.In this episode I meet Robin Hood and a woman who has made more than $2 million in medical bills… disappear.Also, you’ve started sending us stories as voice memos. And they are awesome.Send more! stories@armandalegshow.com.Regular emails are nice too. You’ve sent some powerful stories that way. We are listening
Nov 27, 2018 • 15:37
Why you (and I) will likely pick the wrong health-insurance plan (Season One, episode 4)
Because as smart economists recently proved) it is super-confusing, and most of us can’t do the math.But! We found glimmers of hope. So don’t be scared.We’d like to hear how you’re choosing your health insurance for next year— or are you going to do without? — and what you’ve learned from past mistakes. You can scroll down and just start typing, or hit us up at insurance [[at]] arm and a leg show [[dot]] [[com]] EXTRA CREDIT: We’d love it if you send us a voice memo!Finally, we’ve got some
Nov 21, 2018 • 18:41
How one drug got its $500,000 price tag. (With 99 Percent Invisible– Season One, episode 3)
The answer involves a suburban housewife, a 1970s TV star, and a Las Vegas maker of popcorn and nacho cheese sauce. Also: Wall Street.Produced with our friends at 99 Percent Invisible.Many thanks to Abbey Meyers, Joshua Schein, and Nora Guthrie.Find Us OnlineWebsite: http://armandalegshow.comTwitter: http://twitter.com/armandalegshowInstagram: http://instagram.com/armandalegshowFacebook: http://facebook.com/armandalegshowAbout UsHost: Dan Weissman (www.danweissmann.com)Editor: Whitney Henry-Lest
Nov 14, 2018 • 24:31
All the Marbles: One woman’s epic quest for health insurance (Season One, episode 2)
Laura Derrick takes a drug that costs more than $500,000 a year.So when her family was going to lose their insurance, she made crazy sacrifices… and changed the course of history.Find Us OnlineWebsite: http://armandalegshow.comTwitter: http://twitter.com/armandalegshowInstagram: http://instagram.com/armandalegshowFacebook: http://facebook.com/armandalegshowAbout UsHost: Dan Weissman (www.danweissmann.com)Editor: Whitney Henry-Lester (thedarlingkiller.com)Consulting Producer:
Nov 14, 2018 • 19:06
This is Water, and it sucks. Let’s talk. (Season One, episode 1)
When I first started talking about doing a show about the cost of health care… everybody had a story. Including me.It’s like that famous speech by the writer David Foster Wallace called This is Water. It starts with a joke about two young fish swimming along. An older fish passes by and says, “Morning boys. How’s the water?”He goes, then one young fish turns to the other and says, “What the hell is water?”Sound familiar? The cost of health care is like water. We’re all surrounded by it. We don’t
Nov 14, 2018 • 19:58
