You'd be very, very wrong.
At my preventative care visit, as I have for years, I brought in my little list of nags that aren't big enough to see a doctor about, but are big enough to ask about. My knees are getting creaky. I'm supposed to have a mammogram this year. I don't even remember the others, but there were probably 6 of them. None of them merited additional visits, unless you count the mammogram that led to the breast cancer, but the mammo was something I had been figuring on this year so that was more scheduled than exceptional.
When I got my bill, I was charged for a physical and an office visit. If you ask things outside of the preventative care visit - you know, those things that might prevent other problems - they can charge you for an office visit. Never mind my provider didn't tell me they'd be charging me; never mind that the entire visit took place within the same time span as the normal visit. Never mind that I've done the same thing for 2 years previously and they hadn't charged me.
Since then, I had sent 4 letters, to my doctor, to the office, to Aetna, to the billing office - all dead-ends. The best offer I got was $25 off if I paid the rest of the bill. Hmm. I don't think so.
Finally I talked to my college roommate, who is a lawyer in California. She referred me to a friend here in Seattle who absolutely thought I had grounds for a class-action lawsuit. Then he found out I was dealing with cancer, and said I shouldn't be at the front of a class-action lawsuit if that is the case. I was seriously considering it.
In a last bluff - because I wasn't really willing to go for the legal option - I sent a letter saying I had talked to a lawyer, explaining the above, and telling them it was "unfair & deceptive billing." I gave them three options: drop it, I file a declaratory action to get it dropped, or I file a class action lawsuit. I explained I did not want to sue and am not a legally-minded person, but could not believe that once I had explained what happened, they hadn't immediately corrected their action.
Today, I got a call from the clinic manager. They said they were going to write the amount off. Thanks, guys.
I'm very sad they couldn't do the right thing to begin with. I'm very sad that one has to threaten the lawyers before anything gets done. I'm particularly sad that they do this to many other people, and they make lots of extra money from them.
And yes, I have made my next preventative care visit with a different provider. We'll see how that goes. But in the meantime, 9 months later, I got the bill dropped. Ironically, I will likely still have to pay that $125 when they adjust my insurance, but at least it will be for something that I actually received as opposed to made up milk-the-patient charges.
