Had the rabies shots and health insurance paid for them all except for one

Hey, I had a rabies shot series back in fall 2022, and my insurance covered 3 of them. The last one in the series the insurance denied and on the EOB they said the amount would be roughly $3,500. I called the insurance company in December and on the EOB it said that the service was denied because “the plan does not cover preventative services” when I spoke to my insurance company rep they said it was because the codes did not match up for them as in what was billed did not match the procedure.

So I call the hospital to get it recoded. They tell me that they haven’t heard from my insurance yet, and I tell them that they’ve already told me it was denied can they recode. They tell me no problem sure. I tell them that the other encounters were covered so however those were coded should work for my insurance and gave them the dates that I had had the shot before.

I don’t hear anything further so I call the hospital today because it has been about 5 months, and they said that they’ve not sent me a statement yet because it has sat in auditing. The representative put a ticket in to get it out of auditing so I am now going to be billed. It has never been recoded because as the rep said “the insurance didn’t deny it because of miscoding, they denied it because it wasnt covered.” I ask for an itemized bill. Later I ask how much this statement is going to be for she says that it’ll be for about $500, which is much, much lower than the EOB said. It is actually the exact amount that the insurance was charged prior to my copay on one of the encounters that I referenced when I originally called. She confirms that is the charge for the date that my insurance did not cover.

To be honest, I don’t really know what to do now. I am closing in on the end of the window that I can appeal with my insurance (180 days from the EOB) and I have asked for an itemized bill, but I am not sure I will get that any time soon because she said that can take between 5 and 45 business days. I am also very shocked at the amount that was quoted to me on the phone today because that is much lower than what my EOB said it would be.

Any advice? I feel like something has to be messed up in how it was coded or something for my insurance to deny this while paying for the other 3 shots in the series. All of the encounters are identical– show up to ER, get shot, leave. Except the first encounter (which was also covered) because you get immunoglobulin as well at that visit.

What should my next step be? I haven’t really navigated this process before. What do you guys think the chances of me actually being billed that lower amount of $500 vs the original 3500 price tag?