The issue of marking up (i.e., increasing) the charge for lab tests continues to smolder. In a typical mark up, a clinician sends a patient's sample to a lab for testing. The lab performs the test, reports the results to the clinician, sends its bill to that same clinician, who then re-bills the patient at a higher rate. Can this be ethical?? Lab tests, whether in anatomic or clinical pathology, should be billed to the patient (or his insurance company) at the rate they were billed to the ordering physician with a reasonable allowance for costs of transportation of samples. In some states the practice of marking up tests is illegal. Medicare requires that the performing lab send them the bill directly. It's surprising that insurance companies don't look into this practice.
Next time you get a bill for a lab test from your doctor, ask how much it really cost.
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