Have you heard of the high-complexity drug testing scam? It works like this: at the intake visit the physician has the patient piss in a cup and it gets sent of

Have you heard of the high-complexity drug testing scam? It works like this: at the intake visit the physician has the patient piss in a cup and it gets sent off to a drug testing company somewhere. They run a GC/MS, and then a very substantial bill (~5 kUSD) shows up a few weeks later. It's a stroke of genius, no one is responsible. The physician says "you peed in the cup", the drug testing company says "services were rendered", and the insurance says "out of network". How is such behaviour encouraged by laws and regulations? It's encouraged by the absence of laws and ethics. I said to all three "send it to collection, so I can dispute the debt, I'm not going to pay"; eventually the insurance paid at their negotiated rate (~USD 250), which is closer to the cost it takes to provide the unneeded service. It took several hours on the phone to put that matter to sleep. There need to be some laws, but in the present situation neither the Medical Board nor the Attorney General is interested, consequently it continues.