emergencies and balance billing.

I had an issue with my son where he was delivered by a doctor in network but the hospital and everything else was out of network. Took a year to sort out but we were able to work it out with insurance that we would only pay what we would’ve paid if everything were in network.

Also, if insurance isn’t budging, he should reach out to HR (assuming insurance is through his employer). In my situation I couldn’t get the insurer or HR to budge (I had left the firm at that point) but then reached out to my old boss who pled my case to HR. The next day HR began working to resolve things.

Best of luck to your friend. I agree that it’s a crappy system, but if your friend fights hard enough, I would bet things get resolved favorably.