Recently my doctor referred me to neurology as my back issues are progressing even worse. I went to the neurologist, she recommended and sent a request in for me to do both an upper and lower EMG. When checking out and scheduling it, I asked the girl "does insurance cover this? Is there a cost to me?" Bc I've done procedures, injections and imaging before. With MRI's I just go, jump in the machine and rarely sometimes pay a small fee when getting there. On the contrary, EVERY single doctor I've ever had doing a procedure has ALWAYS given a run down of "hey you haven't/have met your deductible and this is the out of pocket costs to you," showing an ESTIMATED bill of costs to obviously to ensure their patients are actually able to pay their fees or set up a payment plan if need be, or, MOST IMPORTANTLY, judge if this is even financially feasible for them at this moment. They also always have given a price breakdown and payment agreement, stating you understand the cost of what you signed up for. The only few times this hasn't happened for me is when my deductible is met and I'm just responsible for the copay.
Obviously, idfk what an EMG is classified as or even what it actually is, hence the need to ask this. She looked at the computer screen really quickly without even typing and said no insurance is covering it you don't need to worry about it then insistently scheduled me in for the next week to do the EMGS. I go for the EMG appts, both times I checked in and asked what the cost was, the same girl said no cost. Both times while leaving I asked again are you sure I'm good? There's nothing for me to pay? And she just smiled and said nope you're all set have a great day!
Today I get a text from them stating I owe $866 to them so I called, extremely confused and worried, and got a hold of a moderately rude billing lady who said well obviously this is a procedure and you haven't hit your deductible so this is the deductible costs that your responsible for. I explained to her that there's no way for me to automatically know it's a procedure and will be towards my deductible, what my deductible even stands at right now, that every time I've ever had procedures they've always checked with insurance to verify what is covered and relay the cost out of pocket even if they have to call me back later to determine if a payment plan is needed and I even asked for this and was told there was no cost to me, and then I showed up for the appointments and asked again and was told I had no payment. All I was told was that I needed the two EMGs, that it was fully covered by insurance and I wouldn't be responsible for it, and I had no cost due other than my co-pay.
She then said even if the desk girl made a mistake it's still my full responsibility because the tests were done. I explained to her the tests never would have even been done if she had just simply taken the short amount of time to actually do her job and either verify what she was telling me, say she could call me back with the information, or explain to me there's no possible way to know (which would be bullshit). Instead she was so pushy to get it scheduled she just said yup no cost! And got me out of there. Because right now with the way my finances are that I can just barely break even on my bills and basic living necessities and that I would have to budget and plan something like this into that. I genuinely can't afford to add a payment plan like that or have interest accruing on it right this second and I would have pushed it off until more towards the end of the year when I COULD afford it.
She said there's no manager available at the moment and they'd call me back but is there even anything I can do at this point or am I basically screwed and condemned with this bill purely bc no one actually took a second to actually look into and verify my question...? I'm just so freaking frustrated and angry right now. I asked. Multiple times. All it would've took was for her to actually check or to ask someone else that did know how to check and let me know an estimate to actually let me make this decision for myself. Instead she made it seem like everything was all good and covered and I just had to basically show up and give the copay.
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