by Isabelle Taft and Kate Royals
Mississippi Today
April 25, 2022
Janah Garriga’s 12-year-old daughter, Joshlyn, was diagnosed with T-cell leukemia in February. Joshlyn loves her doctors and nurses at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
But when Garriga took her daughter to an appointment in early April, she was asked to sign a letter accepting full financial responsibility for all the costs of her daughter’s treatment because the hospital recently went out of network with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi, her insurance company.
The letter turned out to be a mistake on the hospital’s part. Because Medicaid is her daughter’s secondary insurer, Garriga fortunately won’t be on the hook for out-of-pocket cancer treatment — unlike many other families across the state.
But after so much confusion, she still worries something could go wrong, complicating her daughter’s cancer treatment.