Woman faces bankruptcy after ambulance delivers her to out-of-network ER — when in-network hospital was 3 blocks away

Woman faces bankruptcy after ambulance delivers her to out-of-network ER &amp;mdash; when in-network hospital was 3 blocks away

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last updated 8 January 2015

St. Mary's Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin is about three blocks from nearby Meriter Hospital. For Megan Rothbauer, they are $50,000 apart.

In September, 2013, Rothbauer collapsed at work and went into cardiac arrest. Unconscious when paramedics arrived (she would remain in a coma for 10 days), the 30-year-old was delivered to the St. Mary's ER. Though Rothbauer has health insurance, the St. Mary's ER was out-of-network, while Meriter Hospital — just down the road from St. Mary's — was in-network. "I was in a coma. I couldn't very well wake up and say, 'Hey, take me to the next hospital,'" she told Madison's News 3. "It was the closest hospital to where I had my event, so naturally the ambulance took me there." The result, by Rothbauer's estimation, was $50,000 in uncovered medical bills that have left her on the brink of bankruptcy.

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Mike Barry is the senior editor of audience development and outreach at TheWeek.com. He was previously a contributing editor at The Huffington Post. Prior to that, he was best known for interrupting a college chemistry class.