Last year, Heather Bryan was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer, for which she was prescribed Cotellic, a pill that slows the spread of cancer cells. The medication alleviated some of her most serious symptoms, but it cost almost $7,000 a month.

Thankfully, Cotellic’s manufacturer offers a copay assistance program that brought her monthly cost down to zero. Under the program, the drug manufacturer was supposed to cover the “out-of-pocket costs” for her medication up to $25,000, or just over three months of Bryan’s prescription. Since her insurance plan’s annual out-of-pocket cost was only $12,000, her insurance should have covered the rest of her medical costs for the year.

The arrangement seemed too good to be true — and in the end, it was. 

After Bryan maxed out the assistance program’s $25,000 limit, her insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kentucky, informed her that just $360 of her out-of-pocket costs had been met — leaving Bryan on the hook for thousands of dollars more in medical bills.