A suburban woman was bombarded with nearly $300,000 in medical bills after a change in health insurance companies led to retracted payments from the provider.

Jacci Andersen showed NBC 5 Responds binders filled with hundreds of medical bills along with correspondence she’s keeping from her doctors and health insurance companies.

Andersen said one binder, around four inches thick, was just her communication with United Healthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Over several years, United Healthcare paid nearly $300,000 in medical insurance claims before retracting its payments in 2024, Andersen said.

The sudden retractions triggered an avalanche of bills from numerous doctors without warning.

“I get probably in a given day 10, sometimes in a week, up to 50 different bills, whether it’s mail, snail mail, e-mail, text,” Andersen told NBC Chicago.

The problem stems from a change in health insurance companies that occurred when Andersen moved from Arkansas back to her home state of Illinois.

Andersen previously held a state-issued Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plan in Arkansas, which was only valid within the state.

When Andersen moved back to Illinois and required medical attention, she thought all of her claims should go through her new insurance company, United Healthcare. Her providers submitted Andersen’s claims to United Healthcare and they were covered, until February 2024, when UHC learned of Andersen’s Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield plan.

Andersen said she addressed the bills with United Healthcare and was told that Blue Cross Blue Shield remained her primary insurance unless she canceled the plan. UHC then laid out a monumental task for Andersen, who had to call providers to have them individually submit their bills to Blue Cross Blue Shield, who would then have to deny the coverage before Andersen could submit their explanation of benefits to UHC before UHC would pay for it.

Andersen was left with more than 200 claims.

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

As of the publication of this story, we did not receive answers to our follow up questions.

Andersen said she has spent more than 100 hours trying to sort out the billing, and estimates that all but 65 of her more than 200 claims have now been resolved.

NBC 5 Responds reached out to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arkansas but did not receive a response.

A Bigger Industry-Wide Issue

While the nuances may very case-by-case, data from the non-profit KFF shows medical billing issues point to larger industry-wide problems.

A recent survey of “Consumer Experiences with Health Insurance” found “Nearly half of insured adults who had insurance problems were unable to satisfactorily resolve them.” The survey went on to conclude, “28% of insured adults who had a problem with their insurance say they ended up paying more for treatment or services than they expected as a direct result of those problems.”

Key Takeaways

• If your health insurance company has changed at any point in time, contact your past company to make sure the policy has been closed.
• Make sure your doctors have your up-to-date health insurance information.
• If you run into any problems, keep all documentation and stay as organized as possible.