4 years ago on 02/21/2019 at 12:48 PM
10
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Question about urgent care clinics: Sometimes if my boys need a strep test I will go to the Advocate Walgreens clinic on Devon and Talcott instead of pediatrician within Park Ridge. I just figured out that before insurance, they are charging $203 plus the strep test for my 12yo, and $137 plus the strep test for the 9yo. I called and questioned this last bill, where I had both boys in the room at the same time. Same exact exam. They are claiming that the 12yo’s exam was more intensive. (It wasn’t! ) And strep tests were negative! I looked back at old bills and they are charging $203 for the 12yo consistently. Has anyone successfully challenged something like this?
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8 Comments:
Considered adult now. Different rate. Both btw are robbery.
John Moran
Call your insurance company and question them on how they pay. As both exams were the same.
Were they quick strep tests or did they send them out. I learned the hard way not to use insurance when I go to the Walgreens clinic on Devon. Last time for a quick test done right there it was $89 without insurance and the year before was I think $140 with insurance. Tried to fight it last year with no luck. Both showed positive right away so they didn’t have to send them out, which they said would have cost more.
I used to work for the Walgreens clinics for 3 years. I take my kids to physicians immediate care now. Might want to try that.
Do you have the EOB from your ins company? Check the codes then google them to see what the description is. Was anything at all discussed differently from 12 yr old to 9 yr old? You can definitely appeal that with insurance if you believe it’s untrue.
We love the Caldwell office! Cost just a copay!
I work for Advocate. Perhaps they charged for an established visit vs. new patient? Those are different costs (and the code would reflect that). It doesn’t really make sense if they had both been seen there before, though. You’d have to ask the billers to explain- sometimes even just asking more questions during the exam about medical/social history, or having a complicated past medical history can change the billing of a patient. Next time, you can consider doing self-pay for visits. We were choosing to pay the out of pocket cost of $89 instead of billing insurance for those visits because it was a better rate. But, I recently became aware that technically you aren’t supposed to do that if you actually have insurance— but I’m not sure why you can’t just do what you want! 🤷🏻♀️ Sorry for your experience!