In February 2023, Jenna Glazier, then 25 years old and living in Boston, seemingly out of nowhere began struggling with persistent nausea, body aches and fatigue. Eventually, she also started getting inexplicable bruises. “As she likes to say it, she was treating leukemia with Advil and Tylenol for two months,” said her dad, Bradford Glazier.
Jenna was living on her own, after moving out of her parents’ house in Delaware to attend Emerson College. One night, she FaceTimed her mom, Michelle, while uncontrollably shaking and shivering. “She kind of panicked, obviously, because she was alone and didn’t know what the heck was going on,” Bradford said of his daughter, who was left with no other option but to rush right to the hospital.
Upon arriving at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center via ambulance, doctors diagnosed Jenna with leukemia. She was treated in the intensive care unit for two days and later moved to the cancer ward, her dad recalls.
Though Jenna and her family received the great news that the cancer, which involved the Philadelphia chromosome, was “treatable and curable,” she had to remain at the hospital for over a month.
Motivated by tickets to see Taylor Swift once she was done with treatment, Jenna went through chemotherapy, at the same time waiting for a donor match to receive a stem cell transplant.
“She became known as the Taylor Swift patient,” Bradford said, adding that she made it to the concert. But the struggle was not over.
“We got the first bill from the ambulance … It was like, holy crap! It even says on here, ‘Nine-tenths of a mile and it’s 800-some bucks.’ What?” he exclaimed.
According to a report by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund (PDF), the median cost in Massachusetts for a surprise ambulance bill was $1,024 in 2019.
And the Glazier family knew Jenna would have to keep getting follow-up treatment. Bill after bill, the costs for her hospital visits totaled just over $6,600. Because she was under 26 at the time, she was still insured through her dad’s job with the state of Delaware. But there were copays, deductibles, and out-of-network services. Jenna’s income was low as she’d graduated during the COVID-19 pandemic and had just started a new job a month before her cancer diagnosis.
“So, we’re getting bills from the hospital and spoke to them. They were like, ‘We do have some plans that can help with financial [assistance] … Then we start getting bills from the doctors, different from the hospitals,” Bradford said. “It was overwhelming.”
Around this time, the Glaziers got an email from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society that mentioned how Dollar For might be able to help Jenna get charity care. Despite having filled out many payment, insurance and other finance-related forms already, they decided to contact the organization for further help.
After a couple of weeks, Bradford said the family was close to giving up hope that Dollar For could get rid of the medical bills. But soon they got a letter from the hospital saying Jenna qualified for medical hardship. All her bills up to August 2023 would be forgiven.
While relieved, Bradford contacted Dollar For again to discuss Jenna’s ongoing treatment and costs. He learned that as long as Jenna’s finances didn’t change, the hospital would most likely continue to approve her future applications for hardship assistance.
Bradford also kept calling the hospital. He’s working on getting a refund of the amounts the family already paid.
“If we don’t get it all back, that’s fine. I count my blessings. I’m thankful that, moving forward, Jenna’s not going to have to, you know, sell her kidney to pay her bills,” Bradford joked.
His advice for anyone in a similar situation, personally or with their children, is to not give up on seeking financial relief. “Don’t take the first answer you get as truth. Especially if it’s an answer you don’t want,” he said.
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