The Mexico Ledger is continuing a series of articles talking to former employees of the Audrain County Community Hospital who have been left with thousands of dollars of unpaid medical bills. 

These are the stories of people who were having money withheld from their paychecks for health insurance, only to find out that the money was not going toward the designated insurance premiums, where it was supposed to be going. 

Meet Justin and Marissa Hagedorn and their son Ryder. Marissa started working at the hospital in 2015 under SSM in the lab. Noble Health took over ownership of the hospital from SSM in Jan. 2021. 

Marissa became pregnant with Ryder during 2020 while still employed by SSM Audrain. Before he was born, Ryder was diagnosed with Spina Bifida and Marissa elected to have a spinal fetal repair while she was still pregnant.

 A patch was put over Ryder's vertebrae so his spinal cord would go back in. Spina bifida is a birth defect in the baby that occurs when the spine and the spinal cord do not develop properly. When Ryder was born he had water on his brain resulting in the surgical placement of a brain shunt. One year later, during 2021, the Hagedorn's thought they had insurance through Noble with Meritain which showed active coverage while they were going to multiple specialty doctor's appointments.

"Noble was sneaky about insurance. They retroactively canceled it. In Nov. 2021, Meritain stopped processing claims and we were told to call Noble," said Marissa Hagedorn. 

In late Dec. 2021 a notice was sent to Marissa, and all employees, stating that health insurance was being switched from Mertain to Health EZ. Marissa says she sent emails to health reps asking if she needed to look for another health insurance with regards to her son’s extensive health care specialty needs, but was told to keep going to the doctors visits and special consideration and be deemed In-Network. Most of Ryder's medical treatment was done at Barnes Jewish Children's Hospital in St. Louis. As directed they kept going to the visits. 

In March, 2022 when Noble ceased all hospital operations, it was then that the Hagedorns’ found out they had no health insurance.

In total Justin and Marissa have over $30,000 in unpaid medical bills from August 2021 to March 2022, with the bills still coming in. Marissa also estimates she has about $11,000 in unpaid wages from Noble Health. 

There has been some help for the former employees on the unpaid medical bills from the Audrain Community Hospital Foundation. So far they have helped 47 employees, after receiving a $25,000 grant. That is just the tip of iceberg as far as unpaid medical bills for former employees. An email was sent to the former employees asking them to send the unpaid bills to former CEO of the Audrain Community Hospital Amy O'Brien. Of the employees who responded, their is about $384,000 in unpaid medical bills.

The Missouri Attorney General's Office and Senator Josh Hawley's office have launched investigations into the former owners of hospital Noble Health/Platinum Health.

The Mexico Ledger will bring you the story of Barb Gregory in the Wednesday, 02/01/2023 paper.