Sally Nix faced frustration when her health insurer denied coverage for the infusions crucial to her chronic pain and fatigue management due to autoimmune diseases. Turning to Facebook and Instagram, Nix expressed her outrage. She resorted to publicly shaming the insurance company on social media to prompt authorization.

Prior authorization, a tool for insurers to cut costs, demands approval before tests, treatments, and medications. Although insurers claim it controls unnecessary care, patients and doctors assert it creates delays and barriers to necessary treatments, sometimes with fatal consequences.

Some doctors and desperate patients use social media to expose insurance companies' denials, hoping to pressure them to approve essential care. While reform proposals are on the horizon, many Americans remain unaffected, and the public shaming approach underscores the challenges in the healthcare system's current state.