Drug Test Sent to Another State

This is the most insane convoluted mess I've ever experienced with US Healthcare, so bear with me as I try to explain this. My insurance is Blue Cross Blue Shield Network of Michigan, high deductible plan.

I live in Michigan, and for my entire life I've used doctor offices associated with Spectrum Health (Now Corewell Health). I moved to a town where the only office was Michigan Primary Care Partners, so I figured I would give them a try (massive mistake).

I set up a first patient appointment where I have to fill out 50 pages of paperwork and a release of information form for my entire digital Corewell Health patient history. I'm brought into a room where I wait for my physician assistant. After 15 minutes by myself, they show up and give me the bubble sheet for depression to fill out (this cost me $10 by the way, and they had no comment about my answers).

They then ask about any diagnosis I have. I answer and say I have autism (I have a formal diagnosis). They give me a very uncomfortable side glance and avoid all eye contact for the remainder of the appointment, mumbling under their breath "Huh, I guess autism comes in many forms now…" I take direct neurological damage from this response and choose to ignore it out of sheer confusion as I also have social anxiety.

I then say I have ADHD and an Adderall prescription that I would like to renew. He says I'll need a drug test for that and hands me the permission form to do so followed by him immediately leaving the room. I fill out the form and wait for 20 MINUTES by myself with no one coming back. I leave the room and wander around the hallways for a bit trying to figure out what I'm expected to do, so I eventually wander back to the registration desk and hand the form in.

I'm then told by the front desk that I can get my lab work done in the building because they have a room for it. I falsely assume that the lab work would be done at this building, because in reality I later found out they just collect samples and send them to Lab Corp, which is what they did for my urine sample.

Over a week later, I get a bill from Lab Corp saying that Insurance has denied the lab work because:

They used a diagnosis code of Z76.89, which is basically saying the lab work wasn't done for medical reasons and thus is an "Unpayable Category". The lab work was sent all the way from central Michigan to Minnesota, which automatically makes it out of network!

The Labcorp bill is $283.50 for "ToxAssure Flex 15, Ur" and $26.25 for "Amphetamines, MS, Ur RFX".
On my insurance, this is listed as $200.73 for Procedure G0480 and $109.02 for Procedure 80307.

I was so upset by this that I cancelled my next appointment and ignored the bill assuming that it might just go away. However, now it will go to Collections in July so I'm trying to deal with it now.

I went back to the office, but no doctor, nurse, or physician assistant there is willing to talk to me. Registration kept trying to get me to leave by saying to complain to Lab Corp or my insurance, but I stand firm saying that I have already talked to both and that they say it's the provider office's issue. They finally relent and scan my Labcorp invoice and note that I wanted a different diagnosis code.

I later get a voicemail from someone named Crystal to call back to get it sorted out. I go back to the office, but apparently no one knows who Crystal is because they work at a different building across the State. I give them a call back and get another receptionist because Crystal isn't available. The receptionist is confused because they have a note under my name stating that I have a diagnosis complaint, but there literally are no details beyond that as the reasons and details boxes are all left blank.

Because all the information is missing, I specifically tell them to change the diagnosis code to F90.9 (Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, unspecified) because the test was specifically meant to allow me to get ADHD medication. The receptionist adds this to the notes and now I'm just waiting on that.

It's not over yet though. Once that diagnosis code is changed, I need to have that same provider office fill out an exception form provided by my insurance agency that requires the office to explain exactly why they sent the lab work to Minnesota rather than a lab within Michigan (Individual Business PPO Out of State Exception Form). I'm thinking if they aren't able to fill that out, I'm just going to file a small claims lawsuit against this office for total incompetence.

submitted by /u/Koningkrush
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