Quest Diagnostics Bullying Insured Patients into paying Quest directly and in Full. Cambridge Massachusetts

On 11/16/07 I used one of their labs for a blood test in conjunction with my annual physical. Same time, I ascertained,as I do each time, that my Anthem BCBS primary insurance info is on file with them.

On 12/21/07 (bill date), I receive their first bill. A boxed "Important Notice" states that "This is a request for payment. If we do not receive payment from you, we will bill with the insurance information we may have on file for you".

I filed the invoice knowing that Quest has that information (already one wonders why Quest does not submit their claim to insurance, BEFORE hitting me up).

With date of 1/18/08 I receive the same bill again, this time with the notice "if we do not receive payment from you w/in 10 days we will bill with insurance...."
Again, I file it for reason as stated above.

With date of 2/15/08 I receive the bill for the 3rd time. Now the notice moves in for the kill: "Our records indicate that this account is seriously delinquent. We must now initiate collection proceedings on this account."

Quest's response to my furious email was that they were working with an old insurance ID#. This was patently false, since the one I was quoted back, was valid. I've never received an EOB from Anthem, confirming that Quest never submitted a claim to them in the first place.

Earlier last year my wife had a similar experience with Quest, when in fact her account WAS handed over to a collection agency w/o prior warning.
Quest's strategy is rather apparent: ignore the patient's insurance company as long as you can, and instead intimidate/coerce patient into paying Quest in full - which is quite a bit more lucrative than the insurance payments.

Helmutbooks
Newbury, New Hampshire
U.S.A.