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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