Quest bill much higher than estimated cost- Advice?

Recently I had some blood work done through Quest Labs, and I was surprised to see that the bill was astronomically higher than the estimate they gave me. Before the appointment, I verified with my insurance company that the Quest location was an in-network provider, and submitted my insurance information online to Quest. After that, Quest provided an “estimated out-of-pocket cost” of $5.85. I have a screenshot of this saved on my phone. About a month later, I received a bill for over $300, so I called my insurance company and they said that this wasn’t a mistake, and that there’s no way to really know how much medical services are going to cost until after you’ve received the services.I have 2 questions after dealing with this:

Is giving an estimate that is significantly lower than the actual cost of services considered a form of healthcare fraud (or other poor business practice that can be reported)? If so, where is the proper place to report it? If not, is there any sort of appeals process for this? When I ask my insurance and my providers/doctors how much something will cost, they usually tell me, “we don’t know until it has been billed and gone through insurance.” Is there a way I can get a reasonable estimate before receiving healthcare services?

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

submitted by /u/Clever-Cat-5119
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