"He weighed 400 pounds and he knew he had to do something about his weight once and for all," Yungman's wife Debbie remembers. "This was going to be it. He'd have the surgery, be in the hospital for two or three days and then come home to embark on a new chapter in his life with us. But he never did."

Complications quickly set in, including a reaction to an antibiotic that damaged his kidneys and put him on dialysis. Yungman lost 100 pounds during his nine-week hospitalization and never recovered.

Debbie remembers the shock of his death on April 3, 2005, and the shock of all the hospital bills that began to arrive almost daily — bills that totaled more than $450,000.

"I was in a fog and didn't know what to do," she said. "I thought all doctors automatically filled the insurance and I found out Tim's nephrologist never did. That's when Mary and The Benefit Advocates took over.

"For months, the bills would arrive and I'd just simply turn them over to Mary," Yungman said. "It not only saved me time and let me concentrate on my work as an adjuster for an insurance company but was a tremendous relief and brought such peace of mind.

"I would recommend The Benefit Advocates' patient advocacy services for individuals in situations like myself to anyone," she added. "At one point, they told me my portion was $30,000 but Mary's help got the final total down to $1,300. To this date, I haven't received another bill even for that amount so figured they decided I had paid enough.