Blood Drug Testing

Received $500 bill from lab for blood tests done 5 months ago?

I had two blood tests done in June and last week I received a $500 bill from the lab. I called the insurance to dispute the charges and they told me that the lab had turned in the claim with the incorrect order of my name, middle name first, last name as middle and first name as last. I called the lab about the error and they confirmed my name was correct, just like it showed up on my bill. Both sides claimed the other party was at fault. What should I do? Should I go ahead and pay the bill because the account is long overdue? Or will it ruin my credit history if I wait for this problem to be corrected? This is my first time having my own health insurance and I am not sure what to do.

Public Comments

1. pay it . don't ruin your credit because of thiss .
2. Pay it, but find a lawyer, and ask them to give you advice on what they think, and if they think it is a fraud (which does happen, medical companies always try to rip people off), then your lawyer will go after them, and get the money back.
3. I would strongly advise you to not pay. You are being jerked around, pure and simple. I experienced this a lot of times with the bills for my dear departed wife (cancer), and I refused over and over, and challenged the insurance companies and the medical providers to solve the problem. About 99% of the time, I did not have to pay. You cannot imaging how often I ran into these kinds of problems with my wife's bills -- once for a bill over $10,000!! 1st key: state clearly what you see as the mix-up; state that this is covered by your insurance company, who will pay, if they bill it correctly [this was always my belief until the insurance proved that the policy did not cover it]. 2nd key: patience. This takes a long time (sometimes over a year) Another key: Respond regularly to every notice. I would repeat what I said the first time; I would mention the dates of notices that I had sent responses previously. I would try to add new information each time to keep them reading, even personal info just to make it human. I would say "please" and "thank you so much for trying to straighten this out" many times. That was not exactly my mood but it seemed to help a lot.
4. my suggesting would be getting as much information as you can before taking any action,here http://www.healthinsurance-onlinetips.info/health-insurance-for-free.htm is a good place for that purpose.