This month, a family member was scheduled to receive a (fairly involved) CT scan (at an in-state state university hospital) on a date that just happened to fall

This month, a family member was scheduled to receive a (fairly involved) CT scan (at an in-state state university hospital) on a date that just happened to fall into a "COBRA dead interval" (the first month of COBRA-funded health insurance eligibility has a 'pay later' clause; retroactive coverage for the first month does not spring into existence until some weeks after payment for that month's coverage is made, which might well be after that first month had already passed); in attempting to explore options, I learned from the provider (hospital) rep that if we elected to have the CT performed as originally scheduled (therefore in the absence of verified insurance coverage), we would be required to pay the "self pay" amount ($444[1]) at the time of the procedure; if we chose instead to delay the same procedure until insurance coverage was confirmed restored, the amount to be billed (to insurance) would be $3700. Since this conversation occurred within the "COBRA dead interval", there was no feasible way to ask the soon-to-be-restored insurance provider how much they would be able to discount and/or adjust the $3700 price of this same procedure downward... based on past history, I'm not confident that an insurance company would pre-commit to a set of discounts and/or adjustments for a procedure price (i.e. the final price we'd be required to pay out of pocket if below our deductible) prior to a (post-service-delivery) claim being filed and processed. Catch-22? Or "we can't know what's in the [legislation] until we pass it"? edit: add [1] the "self-pay" amount would constitute payment in full.