NEW YORK — A New York woman with a case of the sniffles who visited the doctor was hit with a $28,395.50 bill, most of which her insurance coughed up.
According to NPR, Alexa Kasdan popped into see Dr Roya Fathollahi, a primary care physician at Manhattan Specialty Care, back in November because of a lingering sore throat.

Kasdan told NPR she was going to go on vacation so she wanted to make sure she wasn't hit with strep while on break.

NPR reports that she popped in for a quick visit and had her throat swabbed and some blood drawn and was sent on her way with some antibiotics.
Her vacay went fine, but then the sickness came.
Dr. Fathollahi's office had left messages and an email saying her insurance company was sending her family a check for MORE THAN 25 grand to cover some out-of-network lab tests.
Tests that would have cost only $653 had the throat swab been sent to Kasdan's in-network provider.
They told Kasdan that these tests were normal and that actual bill was an insane $28,395.50. The doctor's office also said it would waive her portion of the bill, which came out to $2,530.26.
Another possible reason for such an astronomically expensive bill is there could be a connection between the out-of-network lab and Dr. Fathollahi.
According to NPR, Kasdan's bill shows the tests were done by Manhattan Gastroenterology, which conveniently has the same phone number and locations as her doctor's office. Damn, that's COLD.
In the end Kasdan paid her usual $25 copay and a $9.61 fee for some separate lab tests
So what's the lesson of the day? American healthcare is a total sham.