Q: Am I responsible for dishonestly explained and patently unnecessary laboratory charges that my insurance won't cover.
Before I was prescribed Vicodin by my pain specialist, whom I was seeing for pain related to a broken elbow, she required a urine drug screen. She also took blood to do a blood analysis wellness screen which was she assured would be covered by my insurance under the ACA. The lab that did the urinalysis ran every test know to exist on the urine. Most of which had nothing to do with my health issue nor with the wellness tests afforded by the ACA. The bill...$4000. The lab that ran the blood tests did exactly the same thing with a twist. The lab, which incidentally is operated by many of the same management team members that ran HDL (an infamous testing lab that came under investigation by the U.S. Dept of Justice and was bankrupted by a $100M settlement with the DOJ, billed my doctor. Insurance will only pay the provider(the lab) and The lab refuses to bill me directly. The debt becomes delinquent and is turned over to collections, most likely sold. The bill? Oddly $4000.
A: Generally people that protest and keep on get reductions. Suggest you collect documents firs. Then talk to journalists, file a complaint with the health department and the insurance department. Certainly sounds like an abusive practice.
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