$85,000 Life Flight Bill

I am at a complete loss at this point and am not sure what to do. In 2022 I was pregnant and during my 20 week ultrasound they discovered a heart condition on the baby. I live 3.5 hours away from Seattle Children’s Hospital but after that appointment I was sent to their local branch in my town to be followed by their MFM. During the following weeks I was advised of the severity of the condition seen through the multiple ultrasounds. It would likely require immediate surgery after birth and they suggested that once I get closer to due date I relocate to Seattle temporarily so I would be able to deliver at UW medical center and baby could be transferred to Seattle Children’s for surgery and care. Around 31 weeks while trying to fall asleep one night I was struck with a severe headache. It was so bad I could barely talk. I decided to go to the ER where I was admitted for extremely high blood pressure. At one point the bottom number was over 100. Anyways I was admitted for blood pressure and diagnosed with severe preeclampsia due to blood pressure/high protein levels in urine/swelling etc. When an ultrasound was done IUGR was detected as well. Due to all of this and the fact that I was being followed by the Seattle doctors , they all determined together that I should be transferred. At first I was told through a life flight and then a ground ambulance and then last minute the ground wasn’t available and I would have to take the Life Flight. I was advised by the nurse to quickly buy the “life flight insurance” which I did and it went into effect that day. I was life flighted to UW medicine at that point but I was able to be stabilized there and stayed pregnant for another week before an emergency c section.

Following this, I received numerous EOBs in the mail stating that the flight was denied due to lack of medical documentation. Finally in summer 2023 after numerous phone calls between me and the insurance and life flight it finally was billed correctly and was formally denied. I started the appeal process then on my own , I wrote my own letter which was probably my first mistake. I went through the whole internal appeal process. Denied denied denied. Then it was sent to external appeal process. This was denied also (April 2024). I was then finally put in contact with someone at life flight (quick med claims) who is actually qualified (I guess) Who has been saying recently that Anthem handled this claim improperly and they apparently filed the external appeal themselves and didn’t give life flight the chance to send in their own documents. Anthem also refuses to send her my plan document from 2022. I don’t know what to do at this point. I feel that I somehow messed up the appeal process by not hiring a lawyer or something to help me. Life flight is determined to make them pay but I’m questioning how that is even possible at this point. They are set on the fact that it was not medical necessary. The lady at Life flight is now threatening to open a mediation which I don’t even know what this means for me or what I can do at this point. The lady keeps claiming that she will keep me posted , then months go by and I have to reach out to her for any update. 3 years of being strung along this process and I am exhausted