My doctor is insisting she’s in network and my insurance is insisting she isn’t, and now I got saddled with a $3000 bill I was assured would be covered. What do I do?

Hi, all! I’m in a pickle and I’m so confused.

I (26f, Colorado) am a full time graduate student, and I have my university’s United Healthcare Student Resources insurance, which is a UHC Choice Plus PPO plan. I had an office visit with my doctor in August to get an IUD (which should be covered under any insurance in my state, if I’m not mistaken). My doctor said everything would be covered and then lo and behold, I’ve got a bill for nearly $3000 from the IUD appointment alone. I also discovered that an office visit from June and an office visit from July were also not covered. My doctor doesn’t send me bills, any charges just show up in an app she uses, and I hadn’t checked it in a while because I was assured that everything was covered by insurance. Apparently, insurance denied the visits and the IUD because my doctor is not in network. I was extremely surprised.

So, of course, I called my doctor. She was also very surprised and was insisting she’s in network, so I called my insurance, and they insisted that she’s not. They said I need to provide proof that she’s in network. I sent UHC a screenshot of my doctor’s website where it says she takes UHC, but they said it wasn’t specific enough and she needs to provide documentation that she takes my plan specifically. I’ve asked my doctor for this SO many times and she keeps skirting around it. I have asked very bluntly several times over the last few of weeks if she has documentation that she is in network, and in all cases she either didn’t respond or changed the subject. I have tried rewording my request and being as plain as humanly possible that this is what insurance needs, and she just keeps dodging it.

When I asked again a couple of days ago, she said that she and I should do a conference call with insurance to clear this up. We’ve tried to schedule this several times and she keeps either not confirming a time or becoming unavailable at the time we’ve agreed on to call. I can’t tell if something is fishy or if I’m reading into things too much, but the fact that she isn’t providing documentation makes me feel weird. I don’t know how these things work though and I want to give her the benefit of the doubt. Is there even documentation for her to provide?

I can’t tell if insurance or my doctor is the problem. I was told that everything is covered for all of this and I’m just so lost. Does anyone have any advice on what comes next? If I was assured I didn’t have to pay for this and now I’m stuck with this huge bill, do I have any kind of recourse? I’m not able to work on top of school due to some medical stuff, so I have no income with which to pay this. I’m feeling pretty crushed.

Thank you and sorry for the long read!