Eye Care provider billed health insurance, I don’t have vision insurance.

So I scheduled a routine annual eye exam with my eye doctor. A month or two before the appointment I received a “Good Faith Estimate” for a “Comprehensive Routine Eye Exam” for 150$ from the eye care provider.

Arrive at my appointment and all seems standard, do a vision test, dilate my eyes, look at my retina, do some photography, talk about some issues, etc. At no point do I recall asking for services beyond a routine eye exam and at no point I was told that I was.

Time comes to leave the appointment and I EXPLICITLY remember the front desk clerk telling me it would be 150$. Told her to just bill me through MyChart as I had forgot my HSA debit card.

Almost 7 months later I receive a bill for 583$, I go onto MyChart to take a look at the bill and it turns out they had billed my health insurance I had on file (I DO NOT HAVE VISION INSURANCE). At no point did I indicate that this should be billed through insurance, and the front desk clerk never suggested it was going to be.

The bill was separated into two charges; “Comprehensive Eye Exam” at 321$ and “Fundamental Photography” 262$ for a total of 583$. Of course, my health insurance paid nothing as I do not have vision insurance.

I tried called the billing department and was told the billing was valid, although, I have reason to believe the bill was inflated because it went through my insurance. I’m at a loss here, what is my recourse, if any? Thank you for taking a LOOK, haha.