Less than 36 hours before his wife was scheduled to undergo major surgery, New York Times personal finance columnist Ron Lieber got an unwelcome letter from his family’s insurance plan: It was denying prior authorization for the procedure. With no time to lodge an appeal, Lieber and his wife decided to proceed and bet on her doctors’ ability to reverse the decision post-surgery. They succeeded, but the experience troubled Lieber. Why had no one warned them sooner? He set out to find answers to help people avoid scrambling to deal with a last-minute denial. In this episode of An Arm and a Leg, Lieber shares with host Dan Weissmann takeaways from his New York Times series about how doctors and other health care clinicians can do a better job of keeping patients informed. Dan Weissmann @danweissmann @danweissmann.bsky.social Host and producer of “An Arm and a Leg.” Previously, Dan was a staff reporter for Marketplace and Chicago’s WBEZ. His work also appears on “All Things Considered,” the BBC, “99% Invisible,” and “Reveal,” from the Center for Investigative Reporting. Credits Emily Pisacreta Producer Claire Davenport Producer Adam Raymonda Audio wizard Ellen Weiss Editor Click to open the Transcript Transcript: NYT’s Ron Lieber: ‘These people are not going to win.’ Note: “An Arm and a Leg” uses speech-recognition software to generate transcripts, which may contain errors. Please use the transcript as a tool but check the corresponding audio before quoting the podcast. Dan: Hey there. Let’s meet somebody. Ron Lieber: I’m Ron Lieber. I write the…
