For a while, I had to get blood tests every month or so for a drug I was taking. Usually I went to a discount provider (labcorp), and paid like $30 for the bloo

For a while, I had to get blood tests every month or so for a drug I was taking. Usually I went to a discount provider (labcorp), and paid like $30 for the bloodwork (maybe it was actually less). One time I went to UCSF hospital, and they ended up billing me several hundred dollars. For the exact same lab codes. Actually, I think they billed well over $1000, but my insurance company at the time allowed several hundred in charges. I called them up, but they were unwilling to negotiate. I ended up paying, because I figured that it wasn't worth fighting it. One time several years back I fought a fraudulent charge from a doctor who billed me for a more expensive procedure than the one he actually performed (this practice of "upcoding" is actually pretty common). I eventually got them to remove the charge after a lot of complaining to the doctor and talking to my insurance company, but it wasn't worth the stress involved for the amount of money I got back.