Automatically switched to an out-of-network doctor without my knowledge??

I'll try to keep this as short as possible. I've got UHC health insurance through my employer – the gold HMO plan which gives me access to free virtual care visits through the in-app virtual care platform, Galileo. I had some dizziness and fatigue issues and couldn't get an appointment with a doctor in my area as soon as I'd hoped, so I made a virtual care appointment for a referral to get some bloodwork done at a lab. It is worthwhile to note I made the appointment through my health insurance portal. I had my virtual visit with a female (this is important) doctor, got the labs done, all is good. In the mean time, I'd been in contact with the same female doctor briefly through the messaging feature of the app because she let me know she'd ordered the labs, I asked about the fax number to send the results to, etc.

Here is the issue. Once the results came through, on the exact same message thread in the app that I'd been messaging said female doctor on, a different male doctor sent me a brief overview of my results. I had a slight vitamin D deficiency, he asked about if I'd had any issues in the past with that, I answered, that was the end of the conversation. I honestly didn't realize it was even a different doctor messaging me because it was in the same thread that I'd been messaging the female doctor. Anyway, now I'm getting a $250 charge from my health insurance for "Online evaluation and management of an established care program by a physician" from this other doctor, because he is an "out-of-network" doctor. But I was never even notified there was going to be any switch? I don't even know how it's possible that I was assigned an out-of-network doctor given that I made my appointment through my health insurance portal. Is this legal?? Has this happened to anyone else? I reported that I'd never had an online evaluation with this male doctor and a representative said they'd submit a manual review of my claim but I have a feeling they'll just stick me with the charge because technically, this doctor did message me.

submitted by /u/nataliestar98
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