Thirty-six hours before his wife was scheduled for a major surgery, New York Times personal finance columnist Ron Lieber got a letter in the mail that sent him reeling.

Insurance was denying prior authorization for the surgery. The only way forward would be to appeal the decision. But it was Saturday night, and the surgery was Monday morning. There wouldn’t be any time. Should they even go to the hospital?

They decided to bet on being able to reverse the denial later on, but the last minute coverage questions left Ron’s wife, New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, going into surgery that Monday with a brand new sense of stress and anxiety.

And along with worrying how his wife's surgery would go (spoiler: it was successful), and whether they’d end up on the hook for a bajillion dollars, it left Ron to wonder why no one had given them a heads-up earlier.

He set out to find answers — and whether there might be a way to prevent these last-minute denials from sneaking up on other people.

Ron turned to his "Your Money" newsletter subscribers for ideas, and eventually published a draft letter in his New York Times column that doctors and other health care providers could give their patients to better prepare them for insurance curveballs.

Check out the column here – and consider passing it along to any health care workers whose patients you think might benefit.

Here’s a transcript of this episode.

Send your stories and questions. Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.

Of course we’d love for you to support this show.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.