After delivering a baby for a lonely mother, the doctor looked at the newborn’s face and dropped his instruments in shock. He stared into the baby’s distinct amber eyes and whispered, “where is the woman who brought you here?” The mother pointed to her bag, revealing an old photograph that solved a twenty-year-old mystery…

worker named Carla Bennett. Carla guided me through the labyrinthine paperwork for nutritional support, emergency housing applications, and newborn Medicaid.

Robert also quietly arranged for a billing advocate to audit my hospital account. When the advocate handed me the heavily reduced, yet still utterly terrifying estimate of my out-of-pocket costs,continue reading …