My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: California
I am being pursued for a $12K surgery facility fee from an ASC. When the surgery was scheduled with the ASC, they took my insurance info and said it would be covered. After surgery, the insurance company denied the claim and I got billed for the full amount and now being sent to a debt collector. The physician, who owns and operates the facility, accepted the physician allowable amount from the insurer.
Questions:
Does the provider have any legal requirement to inform the patient that a procedure is not covered by insurance?
Does the provider have any legal requirement to give an estimate of costs when they are this substantial?
How do I determine what is normal and reasonable billable amounts for the codes I was billed for (these are facility codes, NOT cpt codes)
Any help here would be appreciated.

