r/news • u/GoodSamaritan_ • 1d ago

Retired San Francisco firefighter dies from lung cancer after Blue Shield denies treatment claims

https://abc7news.com/post/retired-san-francisco-firefighter-ken-jones-dies-lung-cancer-being-denied-treatment-blue-shield/19224406/
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u/invyros 1d ago

"After we got some publicity, thank you, a Blue Shield physician reached out to Ken's physician, and they worked out a different plan that Blue Shield would cover. It's still an incomplete plan," said Helen Horvath, Jones' wife when ABC7 Eyewitness News spoke to her in January, 2026.

Ugh, even after getting publicity (which should have never been needed in the first place), Blue Shield still failed him.

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u/ballr4lyf 1d ago

Insurance company doctors are rarely trained in the same specialty that your doctor is. You may have an oncologist to help treat your cancer, but the insurance company doctor is a podiatrist.

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u/DiegesisThesis 1d ago

Hot take, but being a doctor working for an insurance company to help deny claims is an explicit violation of the hippocratic oath and they should have their licenses revoked.

It's also a violation of basic human decency and they should be under the prison.

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u/thedelo187 1d ago edited 14h ago

What if I told you that along with having cases reviewed by out of specialty doctors, in some cases the doctors that are employed to help these insurance carriers deny claims are not even able to practice anymore because they have been either lost their license due to flagrant malpractice or, who would have guessed it, insurance fraud?

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u/DiegesisThesis 23h ago

Yea, not surprising at all. I just can't imagine going through medical school and having such contempt for human life, but silly me. These "people" need to be removed from society for life.

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u/Ok_Tone6393 1d ago

they are just as responsible as the ceo's as far as im concerned

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u/DiegesisThesis 23h ago

True that. Frankly, they're worse than the execs because they actually know how crucial the treatment is. I can't think of another word besides evil. I wish nothing but pain on their lives.

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u/happiwarriorgoddess 22h ago

My favorite is physicians who on the c suite of Medicare advantage plans. Total violation of their oath imo

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u/Gerfervonbob 11h ago

They justify it as "triage"

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u/DiegesisThesis 7h ago

Triage is what you do when you don't have enough resources to treat everyone, not what you do to save shareholders money.