Most Americans agree that dealing with the U.S. health insurance system is frustrating. But Dr. Katherine Sislow, DDS (@dr.k.sislow) took it to a whole new level in an 8-minute TikTok video on January 2, 2026, documenting a particularly traumatic experience she had with a health insurance representative.
Eventually, her patient’s claim was compensated, but she lost over an hour and a half of her time and a little bit of her sanity.
Dr. Sislo explained over the phone that her patient’s request for dental treatment had been denied three times and she didn’t understand why. After being put on hold, she was told the insurance company didn’t understand her documents.
The doctor then made sure a document she sent them had it all; they just had to scroll down. Eventually, the representative scrolls down to find the document they need. But this is just the beginning.
After much back-and-forth, Dr. Sislo explained that this was a dental emergency.
“He didn’t go to the emergency room because it was a dental problem with dental solutions,” the doctor asserted. After a while, she sighed: “Well, I will hold back.”
After more negotiations, the representative gave Sislo one thing: the name of the doctor who denied the claim. At this point, Sislo counterattacked and the deputies began to defend.
“No, I’m not threatening legal action,” Sislo said. “I’m just saying, in terms of record keeping, it would be stronger if it were looked at by a real dentist rather than someone making these claims with zero dental education.”
In the end, the dentist’s claim was approved, but she communicated one last time about how to avoid such calls in the future. “Well, just send everything over and hope and pray?” the doctor asked.
“You know what, it doesn’t matter, I’m going to win. Have a nice day.”
“I’m actually speechless”
TikTok received 18.4 million views, 2.7 million likes and more than 43,000 comments from people shocked and outraged by the video’s content. Users could not believe the incompetence of this representative and the level of bureaucracy Dr. Sislo had to deal with during the call.
“Insurance company told doctor it wasn’t an emergency?! Stop it,” one TikTok comment read.
“This should be illegal. Immediately,” read another TikTok comment.
“I’m literally speechless,” one post on Reddit said of the video.
Comments on the broken health care system
This TikTok video is not an isolated incident. HealthCare.gov insurers will deny nearly one in five claims for in-network services by 2023, according to KFF’s analysis. They deny a greater proportion of claims for out-of-network services.
As a result, hundreds of videos like the one in which Dr. Sislow details being denied insurance have appeared on TikTok. Many of these videos hope to help change the system…one phone call at a time.
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