Washington Examiner
· collected 2026-10-11 · by Warren H. Cohn
I paid for my medical care.
asserted
I → pay → care
Then I received $27,000 in bills for services I had already paid for.
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I → receive → services
When I spoke with the hospital on Oct. 6, I was given an explanation that should concern every American who has ever opened a medical bill: According to the hospital, an AI-enabled process within its Epic system identified that I had insurance and billed that insurance anyway, despite my having arranged and paid for the services as a self-pay patient.
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my → speak → patient
The hospital has now corrected the disputed charges and credited my account.
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hospital → correct → account
But the correction leaves a much bigger question unanswered.
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correction → leave → question
How many people are paying bills they should never have received?
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they → pay → bills
I am a father of four who has undergone two back surgeries and faces more treatment.
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who → undergo → treatment
I have enough experience navigating healthcare to know that a bill can be wrong.
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bill → have → healthcare
I also run a public relations business.
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I → run → business
I know how to reach leadership, escalate a complaint, and make clear that I am prepared to pursue public scrutiny and legal action.
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am → know → scrutiny
It should not take those advantages to get an accurate bill.
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It → take → bill
She opens an envelope demanding thousands of dollars.
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She → open → dollars
She does not have a communications team, an attorney on speed dial, or hours to spend reconstructing transactions between a hospital and an insurer.
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She → have → hospital
She has groceries to buy.
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She → have → groceries
A job she cannot afford to miss.
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she → afford → ?
Does she challenge the bill?
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she → challenge → bill
Or does she assume the hospital must be right and start paying?
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hospital → assume → ?
That hypothetical mother is the person Washington should have in mind when it examines the expanding use of artificial intelligence in medical billing.
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it → have → billing
The warning signs extend beyond my experience.
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signs → extend → experience
Reuters reported on Sept. 24 that a Blue Cross Blue Shield Association study attributed nearly $1 billion in additional spending over two years to more intensive billing associated with AI tools.
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study → report → tools
The association raised concerns about increases in documented conditions without corresponding increases in treatment.
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association → raise → treatment
Those findings are not proof of fraud, but they demand scrutiny.
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they → demand → scrutiny
My experience involves a different question: how a paid self-pay arrangement became insurance billing and an enormous disputed balance.
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arrangement → involve → question
Both issues expose the need to examine what these systems are doing, who approves their actions, and who bears the consequences when they fail.
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they → expose → consequences
Epic, the company behind MyChart, publicly promotes revenue-cycle tools that verify insurance, support self-pay arrangements, and automate administrative work.
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that → promote → work
Its own website presents these capabilities as ways to empower patients and maximize revenue.
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website → present → revenue
Patients deserve to know what happens when those goals collide.
Finding an insurance policy should not make a patient’s payment disappear.
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payment → deserve → policy
An automated workflow should not erase a documented agreement without review.
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workflow → erase → review
And a hospital should never send a demand for thousands of dollars without reconciling the money it has already received.
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it → send → money
I cannot independently establish which software component caused my bills, whether it belonged to Epic or another vendor, or whether the hospital configured it incorrectly.
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hospital → establish → it
Patients should not have to reverse-engineer hospital software to understand what they owe.
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they → have → what
The White House and Congress should investigate AI-driven medical billing, including Epic’s role in the episode the hospital described to me.
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hospital → investigate → me
They should demand the records that can establish what happened: payment histories, account changes, insurance submissions, software actions, and human approvals.
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what → demand → records
The investigation must also examine the hospitals deploying these systems and the insurers processing their claims.
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investigation → examine → claims
Responsibility cannot disappear into a chain of vendors.
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Responsibility → disappear → vendors
I am calling for a suspension of AI-driven billing practices pending an independent review of their accuracy and patient protections.
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I → call → accuracy
At minimum, systems that autonomously change a patient’s payment status, initiate claims, or generate payment demands should be paused until their operators can demonstrate that they reconcile prior payments and honor documented agreements.
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they → change → agreements
Congress should require a named human reviewer for disputed bills, a clear explanation of every balance, and a halt to collection activity while an alleged duplicate charge is investigated.
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charge → require → activity
Hospitals should also be required to review other accounts affected by a confirmed system error.
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Hospitals → require → error
Correcting the account of the patient who complains loudest is not enough.
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who → correct → patient
…and 15 more, not listed.
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