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Tue 31 Aug, 2004 09:33 pm
Edit [Moderator]: Moved from General to Medical News & Health.
i recently visited a dermatologist as a private pay patient....
they removed some things from my body.....
they're trying to bill me $310.00 for pathology...
a half hour after i left i called them and told them i couldn't afford that that i have no interest in getting pathology results...
they're trying to tell me that i have no choice....i told them that i do...so now i'm waiting for management to call me back and discuss this with me...
i think they're just trying to make more money....do i really not have a choice here???
You probably did not realize that you were receiving a number of services. In addition to the consult and biopsy given to you by the dermatologist, another doctor, a pathologist, checked the biopsy, and made a report. You are obliged to pay him.
As a private pay, you could ask the pathologist if he would lower his bill. Or, you could work out a deal where you could set up a payment plan. Bottom line, you are legally responsible for that bill.
Don't you want to know if your skin cells were cancerous or benign? If the growth was cancerous, or even pre-cancerous, there might be treatments that you would have to undergo to get rid of it.
(Don't know for sure, but I would guess that if there were a REAL problem, you would be told about it, even BEFORE you got the bill. But that is only a guess.)
All tissue and other objects removed from a human body must be evaluated by the pathology department.
When I had the common-garden, light weight rods in my legs replaced with special, extra-heavy duty rods, my insurance company paid $35 to have the scrap metal certified as non cancerous.
I do not know whether this is true for surgically removed objects such as rubber gloves or sponges that were left overs from early surgery.
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