Medical Services - Unilab overbilled by Unilab

Complaints.com received the following e-message on December 22, 2000:

From:

RE: over billed by UNILAB

Last week I received a bill from UNILAB.

The total on the bill was $137.65.

The itemized charges were: $56.25 Rapid Strep Test $48.40 Strep Culture $33.00 Stat Charge I have not had medical insurance since I became self employed.

I have payed for lots of throat cultures out of pocket over the years.

The everage cost of the two tests combined has been $60.00. So imagine my surprise when the bill was not $60.00 but $137.65.

As a rule I examine all of the charges on every bill I get so I decided to call UNILAB and find out what a stat charge was and why the other tests were so expensive.

The first time I called the woman who spoke to me told me that she was authorized to give me a 20% discount and that if my doctor would write a letter the stat charge would be removed. (I spent some time on hold waiting for a "supervisor" to give these instructions.)

I called the doctor and worked this out. That brought the total bill to $83.72. The next day I had to call back and get their billing address for the doctor.

The person who talked to me that day told me that the other person was wrong and that under no circumstances would the stat charge be removed.

The total went up to $110.12. I told the woman that this was unacceptable to have that stat charge tacked back on. She spoke to a "supervisor".

When she returned she told me to call my doctor and see if I could get them to authorize a further discount.

So I called my clinic. I spoke to people in the billing department and people in the customer service department of my clinic. They had never heard of such a thing.

So I called UNILAB back and told them that the information they had given me was mistaken.

If I wanted to have my bill reduced or discounted I needed to speak to someone at UNILAB who was authorized to make a change in the bill.

The person who spoke to me kept telling me that there was no such person that I could speak to. She put me on hold numerous times.

She behaved as if she was speaking to a supervisor.

She finally told me that if my doctor would pay UNILAB directly for the services that my doctor would receicve a substantial discount for these services and could pass that discount on to me.

So once again I called the doctor's office and once again neither the billing office nor the customer service office had ever heard of such a thing.

So I decided to call another lab in my area and to my surprise I discovered that there is a lab that offers client services which are requested by a doctor.

They send their specimens to Lab One Inc. Lab One has contracted with facilities around the country to service the needs of these smaller labs.

You can go to the Lab One website or call 1-800-646-7788 and find a location near you. The location in my city charges $25.00 for a throat culture.

For a rapid strep and a culture the bill would be $50.00. So obviously I will be taking my business to this other lab. Incidentally, I called UNILAB again today.

They received a request from my doctor to remove the stat charge and honored it.

They gave me the 20% discount. My total bill is once again $83.73.

I will pay this one and never use UNILAB again.

When you pay for health care out of pocket every penny counts.

I will gladly use Lab One's specimen collecting friends here in my city.