[civilized]

> you are protected from expenses above $17.4k per calendar year per family.

Given that this applies to in-network costs only, as you noted above, it seems very inaccurate to describe it as genuine protection. Any random provider in your current care situation can be out of network, it is very hard to know or have any control over especially in a crisis situation, and it is these providers that usually end up billing you through the nose.

It would be irresponsibly misleading to call your life insurance "protection" if the insurer just rolls a dice or consults the day of the month to determine if they'll pay your claim.

[lotsofpulp]

The relatively new surprise billing and emergency care from out of network providers to be treated as in network providers legislation changes that:

https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises

https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2021/07/01/hhs-announces-rule...

For non emergency care, it should be easy to login to insurance company’s website and see if doctor or doctor group is in network or out of network.

[civilized]

Sort of. You get to initiate a fight with the insurer through an unaccountable arbiter.

Insurer websites have lied to us in the past, claiming X was in network (zero cost!) and then sending us a denial resulting in a giant out of network bill for that exact X. Same service, same provider.

Truly incompetent and evil system. Fills me with rage.

[refurb]

This is the problem with the US system, all the crap falls to the patient to deal with in the end.

It won’t help you now, but before any expensive visit, you should call your insurer and confirm they are in-network (doctor and clinic). A note will be made in your file as proof.

[lotsofpulp]

That is ridiculous. I have not had such blatant negligence / corruption happen to me yet.

[civilized]

The worst part is we only got this service because it was represented to us as free. It was a genetic test that was nice to have but not strictly necessary. We would not have gotten it if we'd known we would be billed $6k.

Now I feel like I will have to screenshot and archive every digital representation that is made to us about whether X will be covered and be prepared to initiate a lawsuit over it.

In the meantime we will simply not be paying the bill. I've been thinking about doing this for many other medical bills we receive as well. It's all so arbitrary and uncontrollable. I simply don't feel I have an obligation to pay a bill in a made-up amount for made-up reasons I have nothing to do with.

I am a very reliable bill payer and normally see it as a basic matter of personal responsibility, but this broke me.

[refurb]

If this is NIPT don’t pay the bill. The companies will write it off.