José A. Alvarado Jr.

Photographer
 
Location: New York City, New York
Nationality: Puerto Rican American
Biography: José A. Alvarado Jr. is a Puerto Rican photographer dedicated to documenting class inequality, civic engagement, and contemporary issues in Puerto Rico and New York City. He works primarily in long-form storytelling, using visual imagery... MORE
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for KHN: At Urgent Care, He Got 5 Stitches and a Big Surprise: A Plastic Surgeon’s Bill for $1,040
josé a. alvarado jr.
Dec 15, 2021
Location: New York City
It was a Sunday morning in late November when Bryan Keller hopped on a bike for a routine ride to pick up his groceries, cruising with ease in a relatively empty New York City.

The surprises came fast and hard: a fall that sent his head into the pavement and left him bleeding profusely and in shock, a trip to an urgent care clinic for five stitches and then a $1,039.50 bill.

Keller’s health insurance covered much of the cost of his visit to the CityMD clinic on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. But it didn’t cover the physician who arrived to stitch his forehead ― an out-of-network plastic surgeon with a Park Avenue office.

“The people at CityMD just said [this] sort of thing is covered as part of an emergency procedure,” said Keller, a regular cyclist who’s lived in New York City for three decades. Even in post-accident “delirium,” he said, he asked several times whether the stitches would be covered by his health insurance because it struck him as unusual that a plastic surgeon would do them.

“It really irked me that, it’s this classic thing you hear in this country all the time,” Keller said. “When you do all the right things, ask all the right questions and you’re still hit with a large bill because of some weird technicality that there’s absolutely no way for you to understand when you’re in the moment.”

Photographed for KHN, with words by Rachana Pradhan.At Urgent Care, He Got 5 Stitches and a Big Surprise: A Plastic Surgeon’s Bill for $1,040
The Biden administration is weighing how to treat urgent care clinics as part of broad regulations banning surprise, out-of-network medical bills. At the heart of the matter: What counts as an emer…
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for KHN: At Urgent Care, He Got 5 Stitches and a Big Surprise: A Plastic Surgeon’s Bill for $1,040 by José A. Alvarado Jr.
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