34, MO, $35k.

Back in January, I wound up in the ER then treatment for a month. I went to ER again in February at the end of the month into March (4 days). The issue is that I had two insurance policies (Aetna and BCBS) in February due to a job transition, then one ended (Aetna) and the other one was the only carrier (BCBS). In the chaos of ending up in the ER in February, I only gave them my Aetna card as I was barely lucid. I had the BCBS card but did not give it as I didn’t even know what day it was / think about this stuff. So, the hospital got prior authorization from Aetna starting on Feb 29. But, they did not get it from BCBS. Now, I have an odd situation. The most recent EOB from Aetna says that the claim was denied due to coverage issues. It says that the total amount billed was around $13k but then says that I owe about $18k, so somehow it’s higher. On the BCBS side, they say that the same ER claim is denied due to no prior authorization and that I do not owe anything. The hospitals portal says that around $9k is pending insurance. I really could not afford to pay any of those amounts if it came to me paying. Also related, Aetna denied an earlier claim from February for treatments I received and said they need “additional information” from the provider, but also said that I owe the full amount. What do I do now?

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