Drastic turnaround for family facing over $250K in medical bills

By Andrew McCormack

A family is ecstatic after getting word that Blue Cross will indeed be covering medical bills in the neighbourhood of a quarter-million dollars after a man had a stroke while in Arizona.

Halbrite’s Louis Lamothe had a debilitating stroke while in Arizona, resulting in a lengthy and expensive hospital stay. Blue Cross informed the family their insurance claim was denied, because Lamothe’s cholesterol medication had increased from 10 to 20 milligrams, and the insurance provider said they weren’t informed.

The family also reported having to spend $56,000 to fly Lamothe back to Saskatchewan.

On Thursday night, Lamothe’s granddaughter, Rebecca Fee, said Blue Cross had just called and reversed its decision to not cover the claim.

“I’m shaking so hard with excitement that I can hardly type this message to you all,” she commented on Facebook. “My grandma was with her friend in a pharmacy when we called to tell her the news, they were instantly bawling and screaming with joy and had to sit down!”

Fee, who is from Estevan, set up a GoFundMe to raise money to cover their costs. She said she shut off the donation button, and will direct funds they received towards hotel, meal and fuel costs, which she said will not be covered by Blue Cross.

They’ll also use the money to modify their home to make it wheelchair accessible, and help her grandfather’s transition in other ways.

“After one entire month, and hundreds of hours on the phone, multiple news interviews, sleepless nights, multiple emails – we won,” she wrote.

Lamothe is paralyzed on the left side, can no longer talk and is using a feeding tube, according to Fee.

She said that Blue Cross said it wants Lamothe to fill out the paperwork, so they still have to work out some details.

Blue Cross said in an emailed response to Discover Estevan when news came out of Lamothe’s claim being denied that they were “confident in the handling of the Lamothe claim overall.”