Health Insurance Headaches in the US: Routine "Way of Life" Scams

Chicago woman receives $300K in bills after health insurance company retracts payments years after claims approved

Jessica Wong

Updated Wed, March 19, 2025

 

Jacci Andersen got the shock of her life when her health care provider denied hundreds of thousands of dollars in claims that she thought were already approved.

Andersen, a certified laughter coach, had moved from Arkansas to Chicago and started using United Healthcare.

The company covered $300K in claims over the years, but in 2024, it retracted the payments, triggering a flood of bills from doctors.

“I get, in a given day, ten, sometimes, in a week, up to fifty different bills,” Andersen told NBC 5 Chicago.

If her claims were originally paid by United Healthcare, why did this happen?

Before relocating to Illinois, Andersen had a state-issued Blue Cross Blue Shield plan when she lived in Arkansas, which was only valid in Arkansas.

When she moved back to Illinois and needed medical care, Jacci assumed her claims would be covered by her new insurance, United Healthcare. Her providers submitted the claims, and they were paid — until February 2024, when United discovered her Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield plan.

Andersen says that United Healthcare told her that unless she had canceled her previous plan, it would remain her primary insurance.

Then, United Healthcare informed Andersen of the process she would need to embark on.

“You’re going to have to call all these providers and you’re going to have to have them submit the bills to Blue Cross Blue Shield. They’re going to have to deny them. And then you can submit their explanation of benefits to United Healthcare and then we’ll pay it,” Andersen said.

With more than 200 claims to deal with, Andersen says she has spent more than 100 hours trying to get the situation sorted out.

In an email to NBC 5 Chicago, United Healthcare responded, in part, “We are working with her to help her reprocess these claims under her new health plan.”

As 5 Chicago reports, data from the Kaiser Family Foundation highlights that medical billing issues are part of a larger, industry-wide problem.

A June 2023 survey of consumer experiences showed that nearly half of U.S. adults who had problems with their health insurance were unable to “satisfactorily resolve them,” with 28% of those people saying that, as a direct result, they ended up paying more than expected for medical care.