Balance billed for two different providers interpreting different xray views taken in the same appointment.

Located in Texas.

I had a low back injury, so my doctor ordered xrays of my low back. Specifically, views of my spine, pelvis, and sacrum.

I went to an in-network imaging center, had one appointment where several xray images were taken. I only interacted with two techs; no one else was involved as far as I could tell.

My insurance received two claims for this appointment. 1 for the radiologist who interpreted the spine view, and 1 for the radiologist who interpreted the pelvis and sacrum views. The provider facility explained to me that this was done because different doctors have different specialties to interpret the imaging of different parts of the body. But this means I was charged two different xray copays for 1 xray appointment, so almost double what my insurance said my copay would be. [Probably unnecessary detail: There is some kind of discounting going on so I wasn't actually charged double my copay, just almost my full copay for the doc who looked at two views, plus more than half of my copay for the doc who looked at only one. My understanding is that I could have been charged up to double my copay for this visit if the xrays were more expensive.]

My questions:

Do Texas's protections against balance billing apply to this situation, or would it only apply if one of these providers was out of network? Are they allowed to charge you multiple copays if multiple people are involved in the same appointment? I didn't see either of these doctors at my appointment and no one told me there would be two doctors involved. Are there any limits on how many people they can reasonably involve in interpreting imaging? Parts of my ribs and legs were also visible in the scans; should I just be grateful they also didn't get a rib doctor and a leg doctor involved? When my doctor (physiotherapist) ordered these different xray views, should she have known and warned me that I would probably be charged for two different services since these were different parts of the body? Or is that unreasonable?

Thank you for any clarification you can offer. I am now a person with a back injury, so there may be more imaging in my future. I want to know how to protect myself from being billed multiple times like this in the future, or at least have it not be a surprise.

submitted by /u/tax_throwaway_935478
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