GILBERT, AZ (AZFamily) — For the past year, 7-year-old Jett Carter has been through a lot. The one thing he looks forward to is getting back to first grade.
“I get to meet my classmates. I get to play with them. I get to eat lunch with them. I get to do a lot of stuff,” Jett said.
None of that stuff has been possible while he’s been fighting rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer of the soft tissue; 42 rounds of chemo and three surgeries took care of 95% of it.
“There was still about 5% of it was wrapped around major vessels they couldn’t resect. He needed proton beam radiation therapy, which is the only safe and effective treatment for pediatric patients,” said Shauna Carter, Jett’s mother.
The specialized treatment came with a hefty bill: $74,000.70. It was a bill Carter thought United Healthcare UMR would cover.
“I work at a hospital and our insurance states that we can only receive care through a Dignity facility. However, there are no Dignity facilities in this state or country anywhere that provide that type of treatment,” she said
The treatment is only done at Mayo Clinic. She fought to get approval to take him there.
“I hoped that since they agreed that there was nowhere else that he can receive this, when the bills eventually came, insurance would do the correct thing, but that has proven to not be the case,” she said
Arizona’s Family reached out to United Healthcare early Thursday afternoon and a spokesperson promised to look into the case. Later in the afternoon, Carter said her employer reached out to her to say there was a coding issue and the bill would now be covered by insurance.
In the meantime, Jett has a PET scan next week. His family hopes everything looks good and he can get his port out and return to school. And there’s one more thing he’s excited about.
“Disney!” he laughed.
Donations are being accepted through a crowdfunding page for Jett and his family.
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Clinton Mora is a reporter for Trending Insurance News. He has previously worked for the Forbes. As a contributor to Trending Insurance News, Clinton covers emerging a wide range of property and casualty insurance related stories.