My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: California
My son is autistic and we have HMO. We took him to see a doctor (not contracted with the insurance company) in Los Angeles, who specializes in treatment of autistic kids. As part of his evaluation, we had to run several blood tests on our son. The doctor's office told us that we could pay them for the lab work there, in addition to a blood draw fee, which we agreed to. The office would then send the blood samples to Quest for testing. We paid the lab fees at the time and returned home. Two weeks later - today - we got a bill for $1000 from Quest - a bill that we thought we had already paid. I called the doctor's office in panic towards the end of the day. The receptionist told me that their staff was getting ready to leave for the day and would help me the next day. She did confirm that that we should not have received a bill from Quest, but that they would look into it tomorrow.
Some digging around reveals that I may have been balance billed by Quest. This doctor is quite famous in the autism community and I think he has a sharply discounted rate with Quest for patients who don't have insurance or whose insurance wont cover his fees and his tests (which maybe many of his patients as he isn't contracted with any insurance company). The lab fees he charged me was around $500 which included a $90 blood draw fee. I think Quest accepted this payment from his office, but also then billed me an additional $1000 which they feel they are owed ? I was told that "double billing" is not permitted in California but don't know how to fight this if the doctor's office cannot help me settle this. My insurance is not involved at all. They don't believe in biomedical treatments for autism so the whole visit - including the doctor's consultation fee - has been out of pocket. And, no, I am not confusing the doctor's fee with the lab fee. I paid for both.
Please help ! How do I fight this ? Should not Quest only get their contracted rate with the practice is ? I cannot afford this. My son's therapies are already a huge drain on our finances and this is back breaking. Please, please, please help me fight this monster bill. Thank you.

