The expensive phone call

Be wary when you're having any kind of medical procedure done and the office says to expect a call the day prior to tell you what you need to do and what to expect.  That happened to me recently when I had a lung cancer screening.  My doctor felt that due to my age, 51, and my history of smoking that I should have one. Thankfully, everything came out fine.  Whew!!

Anyway, they set up a time to call me the morning before the screening to tell me everything I needed to prepare for it.  The time was set up before work at 9 a.m.  The call took less than five minutes.  Great.  Easy. Nothing much to do other than show up 15 minutes early to the appointment.  I can do that.  And I did that.  I was in and out of the office in less than half an hour. Holding my arms over my head during the screening was the hardest part of it all.  And, yes, I am out of shape, and my arms were sore the next day LOL

A few weeks pass and I receive a bill from Cone Health for about $95.  The total charges were for $175 but my portion was only $95 after insurance. I promptly paid this bill and did not think anything more of it.  Oops. At the end of last week, I received another bill from imaging services for $390.  Honestly, I was like WTF?  I just paid this.  WRONG!!  I looked at the dates of service for both bills.  Lo and behold, the $390 bill was for the actual screening.  The $175 bill was for the five-minute phone call.  I'm like, seriously?!  You're charging me $175 to tell me to come 15 minutes early to my scheduled appointment?  

Now I know that these calls are not a courtesy.  They are not included with the procedure.  I feel like this was a major rip off by Cone Health.  So, the next time they tell me they are going to call before a procedure, I am simply going to refuse the call and google whatever it is I need to know.  I am happy that I have good doctors and that I have insurance, but that is beyond ridiculous to me.  I have never felt scammed by healthcare before.  That is not a good feeling.  And, honestly, if I am to be charged $175 for five-minutes of anything, there'd better be a damn happy ending!