Ask Anthony\u00a0<\/a>for help.<\/p>\n
\n‘I don’t know if there’s words for it’ <\/p>\n
Grim says she initially put off getting a mammogram until her doctor’s office called to remind her.<\/p>\n
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she says she was overwhelmed by the number of doctors and decisions that followed.<\/p>\n
“It’s overwhelming…because they send you to so many doctors.”<\/p>\n
Eventually, Grim landed at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. Before scheduling treatment, she says she called to make sure the facility accepted her insurance, which is through Personify Health.<\/p>\n
“This is my insurance. Do you take it? And I was told yes.”<\/p>\n
When asked whether that was Mayo Clinic, Grim confirmed:<\/p>\n
Grim says her employer-based coverage is divided between a medical plan and a separate facility plan.<\/p>\n
She says her insurance company then arranged a single-case agreement with Mayo for her care.<\/p>\n
“I got my pre-approval letters and on June 13th last year I finally had my surgery.”<\/p>\n
\n‘They never should have taken me in the first place’ <\/p>\n
Grim says everything changed after her first chemotherapy treatment.<\/p>\n
“Right after my first chemo, they called to tell me that they were no longer taking my insurance and it was a mistake. They never should have taken me in the first place.”<\/p>\n
She says the news was especially difficult because she was already in the middle of cancer treatment.<\/p>\n
“There’s nothing like hearing you’re a mistake when you’re in the middle of chemo treatments.”<\/p>\n
Grim says she immediately contacted her insurance company.<\/p>\n
According to Grim, the insurance company re-confirmed the agreement with Mayo and continued paying for her treatment.<\/p>\n
Then, this year, she says she received another call.<\/p>\n
Grim says Personify Health told her Mayo was disputing the payments and had refunded the money it had received for her treatment.<\/p>\n
With those payments reversed, Grim says Mayo began billing her directly.<\/p>\n
The total, according to Grim, is $177,826.99.<\/p>\n
Grim says the amount is divided into six separate balances.<\/p>\n
She says one charge is about $900 for chemotherapy-related care, while another is more than $31,000 for her surgery.<\/p>\n
The largest disputed amount, she says, is for radiation treatment.<\/p>\n
“I think I had 16 treatments. They refunded that also on May 29th, 2026…and that is for $131,000.”<\/p>\n
Grim says she has explanation-of-benefits paperwork showing her patient responsibility as zero.<\/p>\n
She says she has tried to get an explanation for why she is now being asked to pay for treatment she believed was covered.<\/p>\n
“Mayo Clinic doesn’t give me an answer. They just want me to pay.”<\/p>\n
\nWhat Mayo Clinic says <\/p>\n
Anthony Austin reached out to Mayo Clinic about Grim’s situation.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Mayo Clinic said:<\/p>\n
“Mayo Clinic works with insurance companies and other payers to advocate for patients who may benefit from a recommended treatment plan. Mayo Clinic does not have authority over insurance coverage decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayo Clinic did not address the specifics of Grim’s disputed bill in its statement.<\/p>\n
Grim says the lack of resolution has added another burden to what she describes as the worst year of her life.<\/p>\n
She recently underwent another surgery and is doing well. But she says the disputed bill has made it difficult to move forward.<\/p>\n
“I want to move on with my life, but this is not letting me move on with my life.”<\/p>\n
\nAsk Anthony is looking into it <\/p>\n
Anthony Austin has reviewed paperwork related to Grim’s dispute and has begun making calls to better understand how the nearly $178,000 in charges are being handled.<\/p>\n
At the center of the dispute is a basic question: Does Grim ultimately owe the nearly $178,000, or should the disputed payments be resolved between her insurance company and Mayo Clinic?<\/p>\n
Mayo Clinic has spoken with Anthony about the issue off the record. Its statement included in this story is the hospital’s only on-the-record response.<\/p>\n
Personify Health has not responded to requests for comment. The company has told Grim it escalated the issue after\u00a0Ask Anthony<\/a> reached out with questions.<\/p>\nIf you have a problem you just can’t solve, you can email Ask Anthony at AskAnthony@FirstCoastNews.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gretchen Grim says she confirmed Mayo Clinic accepted her insurance before treatment. Now, she says she’s being billed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-397735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}