Out of Patients
with Matthew Zachary
Welcome to 2026: The Year of the Patient where the sick shall inherit the ballot.
23,000 LinkedIn Followers and the Reality of US Healthcare
23,000 people follow me on LinkedIn. They are patients, caregivers, and clinicians dealing with insurance denials, medical debt, and delays in care. Here is what they are seeing every day and why it reflects a much larger problem across US healthcare.
When an Insurer Calls Your Treatment Investigational and the Alternative Is Brain Surgery
When an insurer labels trigeminal nerve blocks investigational, patients may face brain surgery instead. This essay examines how coverage policy, coding decisions, and actuarial incentives shape care for trigeminal neuralgia and what must change to align patient protection with economic logic.
Patients Should *NOT* Have To Write Policy Briefs
Sally Neely Nix manages chronic pain with nerve block injections. No opioids. Her insurer calls them experimental. So she built a policy brief and sent it to the CEO. While in extreme pain. Patients shouldn't have to become researchers to access care that works.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Tried to Kill My Friend
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina demanded another review of an already-approved, externally-reviewed IVIG infusion—48 hours before treatment. For a patient with life-threatening hypersensitivity reactions. This is how the denial machine works, and how one patient fought back and won.