Billing Questions for Walking Boot

Situation:

I went to a podiatrist for a foot problem. They suggested a walking boot, and they offered me one. I said yes.

Before I left, they mentioned they were going to charge ~$500 for the boot to my insurance. I looked up the boot online and saw it was ~$50 (+shipping/tax) from multiple online stores. I pointed this out and how ridiculous the $500 price was (10x the price online), and so they said they'd give me the "uninsured" price, which was $100.

I agreed to this and paid the $100 for the convenience of walking out there with the boot, even though I could've bought it online later for a bit less.

They ended up billing my insurance company anyway for the $500. My insurance says it paid $250 of that, leaving $250 for me. I already paid $100, so there's $150 remaining that the podiatrist billed me.

2 Questions:

(1) What makes sense to do here? Dispute the claim/bill with the health insurance? Or just not pay the $150 bill (and probably communicate with the podiatrist why I'm not paying)?

(2) Ignoring the fact that they billed the $500, would I have been able to submit the $100 as a claim to my health insurance, even though this was an "uninsured" price (and so they wouldn't have billed my health insurance directly)? The boot was still "medically necessary", so it should still be covered — I had just negotiated the price down, because the podiatrist's price was ridiculous.

submitted by /u/deng35
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