Dr. office "accepts insurance" but is out of network / bills insane amount for a 20 min consult
Hi – i doubt i have any leverage but wanted to share this likely common situation. My main doctor called me re a bad biopsy result / diagnosis and said: i already spoke about your case with this Dr. X, he is expecting to see you this week and will go over what this means. I reached to the Dr.’s team (which shared the facility with my main doctor and his office was called something very inclusive like “XX institute of America”; they stated they take my insurance. 20 days after seeing the doctor for 20 min to go over my diagnosis / big picture (no further labs, anything), i get insurance statement which shows $1900 billed to me and my insurance covers $250 as a max amount for this service. The huge delta is because the doctor is out of network, not because the benefit is not covered. Clearly, i need to switch doctors but this whole situation feels so wrong to me. Is there anything i can do to negotiate with the dr. office? Should they warn patients that their care is out of network and will be very expensive (if i were to stay with them through surgery and all, i’m sure my total cost would be completely prohibitive for 99% of people).