Get tested at a public facility. Question what services are being provided. And know your rights under federal law.
This is an updated version of an article first published on Nov.13,2020. The Delta-variant-driven wave of coronavirus infections is driving a new surge in testing — and that could mean more surprise medical bills. Congress wrote rules last spring to make most coronavirus testing free for all Americans. But patients, with or without insurance, have found holes in those coverage programs. Federal law does not, for example, require insurers to cover the routine testing that a growing number of workplaces and schools are mandating. Some doctors and hospitals have tacked unexpected fees onto coronavirus testing bills, leaving patients with surprise charges ranging from a few dollars to over $1,000. In the past year, I’ve collected patients’ bills related to coronavirus. As part of that project, I’ve read through more than 100 patient stories about coronavirus tests. Many patients are happy to report no charge at all, while others have been billed large unexpected fees or denied claims related to coronavirus tests. [Have a bill you want to share? Submit it here.] The surprise bills have hit uninsured Americans as well as those with robust coverage. The health data firm Castlight estimates that 2.4 percent of coronavirus test bills leave some share of the charge to consumers, which means there could be millions of patients facing fees they did not expect. These are some simple steps you can take to lower your chances of becoming one of them. Many states, counties and cities/towns now have public testing facilities. Very few patients have reported surprise medical bills from those testing sites (although it’s not impossible). You can typically use your state health department website to find public testing options. If a public test site isn’t an option where you live, you might consider your primary care doctor or a federally qualified health clinic. The largest surprise coronavirus test bills I’ve reviewed tend to come from patients who are tested in hospitals and free-standing emergency rooms. Those places often bill patients for something called a facility fee, which is the charge for stepping into the room and seeking service. Patients are finding that these fees can pop up even when they don’t actually set foot in the facility. Multiple patients at one Texas emergency room had $1,684 facility fees tacked onto their drive-through coronavirus tests. A patient in New York faced a $1,394 charge for her test at a tent outside a hospital. The majority of the bill was the facility fee. The investigative news site ProPublica has reported on how facility fees can sometimes cost as much as 10 times the coronavirus test itself.
