One Sad Puppy

A trip to the pathology lab is my favorite thing ever...and then I woke up.

Amidst the hubbub of unpaid claims and antagonistic rejections on the part of Blue Shield, I thought that this little claim from the pathology lab had merely slipped through the cracks (as aforementioned in the previous post). I had been sent to Westcliff Labs by my specialist to get some samples taken. Apparently, and this is no joke: IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PATIENT TO KNOW WHICH PATHOLOGY LABS THEIR INSURANCE COVERS, NOT THE DOCTORS/OFFICES THAT DEAL WITH THESE SITUATIONS ON A DAILY BASIS. Lovely.

So, if you couldn't gather by by rude capitalizitude, Westcliff was not covered by United Healthcare (since I didn't have their stupid referral) nor was it covered by Blue Shield. So why did the doctor send me here AFTER asking me what insurance I had? Because not sending me here would have made sense.

Luckily, the bill was small, but I ultimately lost this battle (and $90) since there was no way to dispute it other than to say I was really sad, like the puppy in this picture. That didn't work.

PS - Just to add to the fun, the pathology lab messed up my results because they stored my samples improperly and were unable to analyze them. They told the doctor this, but not me. The doctor never called me either. After waiting for a few weeks and becoming impatient to hear my results, I called up the doctor's office and they informed me that I had to go back to the pathology lab again (were they ever going to tell me this??). Luckily, this one was on the house!