NPR titled its piece, “Summer Bummer: A Young Camper’s $142,938 Snakebite,” but the title could just as easily have been, “Summer Miracle: Helicopter, Hospital, and Rare Serum Save 9-Year-Old’s Life—for Free.” As we learn near the end of the story, the family’s health insurer negotiated charges down to $107,863.33 and paid that amount; the camp’s insurer paid $7,286.34 to cover the deductible and coinsurance the parents would otherwise have paid. According to the report, the family paid zero.

So, the story seems to have two points. First, that it’s awful that a family received a terrifyingly large bill and had to wait nervously until insurers wiped the slate clean. Second, that the helicopter and antivenin cost far more than they should. (To clarify, these were the perceptions expressed in the article, not my perceptions.)

I have no quarrel with the article’s first point. It’s easy to sympathize with this family receiving a $142,938 statement and agonizing over it until it went away. Similar mailings spooked my parents during their late-life illnesses. Statements often said, “This is not a bill,” but those words hardly calmed our nerves.

So how about one simple, costless reform that could instantly reduce Americans’ healthcare angst: don’t send patients any billing statements until insurers and providers have concluded their negotiations.