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Bryce Harper avoids major injury; Magic Gardens creator Isaiah Zagar turns 80 | Morning Newsletter

It’s Sunday and there are plenty of people wearing green, but for once it has nothing to do with the Eagles. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Philly. This morning we’re eagerly awaiting news on the NCAA tournament and wishing Bryce Harper’s ankle a speedy recovery.

Philadelphia Phillies' Bryce Harper rolls on the dirt holding his leg after getting hit by a pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays during the sixth inning in a spring training baseball game, Friday, March 15, 2019, in Clearwater, Fla. Harper sustained a bruised right foot Friday, but manager Gabe Kapler said the team wasn't overly worries about the injury. Initial X-rays were negative, the team said, but Harper then left the ballpark for more detailed X-rays. (Yong Kim/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
Philadelphia Phillies' Bryce Harper rolls on the dirt holding his leg after getting hit by a pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays during the sixth inning in a spring training baseball game, Friday, March 15, 2019, in Clearwater, Fla. Harper sustained a bruised right foot Friday, but manager Gabe Kapler said the team wasn't overly worries about the injury. Initial X-rays were negative, the team said, but Harper then left the ballpark for more detailed X-rays. (Yong Kim/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)Read moreYONG KIM / AP

    The Morning Newsletter

    Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter

It’s Sunday and there are plenty of people wearing green, but for once it has nothing to do with the Eagles. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Philly. This morning we’re eagerly awaiting news on the NCAA tournament and wishing Bryce Harper’s ankle a speedy recovery. We’re also chatting with reporter Sarah Gantz about her work on health care costs. It’s never fun finding a surprising medical bill in the mail, but in her reporting Sarah has found it’s something almost everyone deals with — and sometimes there’s a happy ending.

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Tauhid Chappell, Aubrey Nagle (morningnewsletter@philly.com)

The week ahead

  1. It’s Selection Sunday which means we’re thisclose to finding out whether Temple will join Villanova in the NCAA Tournament.

  2. Philadelphia Magic Gardens creator Isaiah Zagar turns 80 tomorrow. To celebrate, the garden’s caretakers are inviting the public to sign a birthday card at his party from noon to 1 p.m.

  3. Phillies star Bryce Harper is nursing an ankle contusion this week after being hit with a 96 mph fastball Friday during a spring training match-up. He’ll be listed as “day to day” until he recovers, but is expected to be ready for opening day.

  4. New Zealand lawmakers are expected to consider tightening the nation’s gun laws this week in the wake of shootings at two Christchurch mosques Friday that left 50 dead.

This week’s most popular stories

Behind the story with Sarah Gantz

Each week we go behind the scenes with one of our reporters or editors to discuss their work and the challenges they face along the way. This week we chat with health reporter Sarah Gantz, who reports on health care costs and the medical bill issues that many Philadelphians face every day.

You’ve focused on health costs in Philadelphia for the past year. What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned in that time?

What surprises me is how ubiquitous billing problems are. Everyone seems to have a story — I’ve even met health economists who study insurance design for a living who have gotten tripped up navigating the system. Earlier this year I wrote about a woman who seemingly did everything right: She made sure she had prior authorization for her breast MRI, used her insurer’s price tool to estimate the cost and even called the doctor to make sure the office accepted her insurance. She still got billed twice the estimated price.

And what questions do you still want to answer?

I’m interested to know more about how health care costs — especially those associated with a lifelong, chronic illness — affect our health long-term. To learn more about this, I’ll be working on a project this year about the costs associated with diabetes that will look at financial hardships, such as insulin prices, as well as the emotional, mental and physical costs of managing diabetes.

For the Philly Health Costs project, readers contributed stories of their own health care costs and medical bills to aid in your reporting. Why was it important to get your audience involved?

Readers who participate in these stories make them relatable for other readers — including the health system leaders and policymakers who read the Inquirer. Health policy on its own can be dense and it’s often difficult to understand how it affects you personally. But when a reader raises his or her hand and says “this happened to me,” it’s easier to see the human impact of policy decisions.

In February, you reported on how incredibly complicated insurance policies surrounding miscarriages and childbirth can be. Recently an anonymous reader decided to cover the bills for one of the women in your story. How did that inspiring update come to fruition?

I was overwhelmed by the responses from several readers wanting to help Alyssa, who fell into debt after a miscarriage. I am always happy to help make a connection like this, but it can be complicated because I’m not allowed to give out a source’s contact information or accept money on their behalf. In this case, with the reader’s permission, I passed on his email to Alyssa so that she could get in touch with him. The anonymous donor ultimately contacted the collection agencies holding Alyssa’s $325 debt and made payments directly to them. Outcomes like these are a bright spot in our news cycle, but they point to a serious issue: It doesn’t take much to become overwhelmed by a medical bill and many people are finding the kindness of strangers is their only hope for overcoming stifling health care costs. Forty percent of Americans don’t have savings to cover a $400 emergency and a third of the money raised through GoFundMe goes toward medical expenses.

While that story had an uplifting ending, not all families are so lucky. What could the medical industry do to make this process easier?

One of the takeaways from this story was that no one is safe from baffling medical bills — not even families grieving the loss of a child during pregnancy. Policy experts I talked to think health plans could be designed to better address women’s health needs. But what I think could also go a long way, at least in terms of lessening the blow of a bill, is better communication. Regardless of what their bill is for, the patients I talk to have had so much trouble getting information from their insurers and providers. It would be a kindness if this could be at least a little easier.

Generally, what recourse is available for those who think they’ve received an inaccurate or unexpectedly high bill?

There are a few steps you can take and I recommend anyone interested check out this story. Some experts estimate that as many as one in five medical bills has an error, so it’s worth it to always look over the bills that come from your doctor and the explanation of benefits from your insurer, which gives more detail about how your plan handled the bill. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or challenge a bill you think is wrong!

Got a tip or story about your own medical bill? Contact Sarah at sgantz@phillynews.com or on Twitter @SarahGantz.

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

This photo makes us want to head there and snap a picture just like @hswphilly.

Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we’ll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!

#CuriousPhilly: Have a question about your community? Ask us!

Have you submitted a question to Curious Philly yet? Try us. We’re listening to our readers and doing our best to find answers to the things you’re curious about.

Our readers’ latest question: Why doesn’t the Peco building display the temperature anymore?

The answer: Software woes caused Peco to pull down the display but it will be back.

What we’re…

  1. Eating: A steamy plate of huge khinkali dumplings at a Georgian bakery in Northeast Philly aptly named Georgian Bakery & Café.

  2. Creating: Cinnamon-coated, coconut cream-filled, Irish potatoes. It’s St. Patrick’s Day, after all.

  3. Watching: Project Runway in support of Philly’s own Renee Hill, who is among the group of designers competing for Runway’s biggest purse ever: $250,000.

  4. Listening to: Meek Mill, because it’s #MeekMillWeekend, obviously.

Comment of the week

Sounds like a great idea! I never cared for alcohol anyway, and since I discovered Belvoir Fruit Farms and similar fruit sodas, I’ll never feel obligated to buy wine again! I hope to see these products around soon. — The Salty Snowflake on This Main Line engineer quit drinking and her job and wants to build a $10 million mocktail business

A Daily Dose of | Bread Pudding

A Philly restaurant is using a cherished family recipe to raise money for a family seeking sanctuary in a Germantown church.