Will my insurance pay for this test? Most commercial insurance companies pay at least a part of the charges for a particular test and may pay in full. As part of Athena’s Patient Protection Plan, Athena will bill your insurance company for the cost of testing and file all appropriate appeals. Also, regardless of the amount paid by your insurance company, Athena will limit your out-of-pocket costs to 20% of the amount billed. (If your insurance company ultimately pays more than 80% of the charge for the test, Athena will refund the excess amount to you.) Will Medicare pay for the test? For tests covered by Medicare, Athena will bill the Medicare program directly. However, depending upon the circumstances, you may be asked to provide payment in advance for some tests because Medicare does not always cover the cost of testing.
Lindsey, I recently had several tests done by Athena Diagnostics. In every case, Athena sent me a series of letters, indicating they wanted to talk to me to ‘confirm my insurance information’, even though this information had, of course, been sent by the hospital that sent the blood sample. Sometimes they called. They even sent letters FedEx. I did not respond.
The letters also offered the ‘opportunity’ to pay them 20% of the fee they wanted for each test, calling it their ‘Patient Protection Program’. Each test was on the order of $1000, so I received a series of offers to pay them $200-$300.
The tests are now all complete and I received a statement from my insurance company. Yes, they had been billed by Athena, of course, who was in no need of any confirmation of my insurance information, despite their protestations to the contrary. For each test, Athena billed their full amount. In each case, my insurance company paid them something between $100 and $200. In each and every case, Athena simply dropped their charge to the amount my insurance company was willing to pay.
The take-home lesson: Athena’s ‘Patient Protection Program’ is a first-class scam. Don’t be a sucker.
Lindsey, I recently had several tests done by Athena Diagnostics. In every case, Athena sent me a series of letters, indicating they wanted to talk to me to ‘confirm my insurance information’, even though this information had, of course, been sent by the hospital that sent the blood sample. Sometimes they called. They even sent letters FedEx. I did not respond.
The letters also offered the ‘opportunity’ to pay them 20% of the fee they wanted for each test, calling it their ‘Patient Protection Program’. Each test was on the order of $1000, so I received a series of offers to pay them $200-$300.
The tests are now all complete and I received a statement from my insurance company. Yes, they had been billed by Athena, of course, who was in no need of any confirmation of my insurance information, despite their protestations to the contrary. For each test, Athena billed their full amount. In each case, my insurance company paid them something between $100 and $200. In each and every case, Athena simply dropped their charge to the amount my insurance company was willing to pay.
The take-home lesson: Athena’s ‘Patient Protection Program’ is a first-class scam. Don’t be a sucker.
Lindsey, I recently had several tests done by Athena Diagnostics. In every case, Athena sent me a series of letters, indicating they wanted to talk to me to ‘confirm my insurance information’, even though this information had, of course, been sent by the hospital that sent the blood sample. Sometimes they called. They even sent letters FedEx. I did not respond.
The letters also offered the ‘opportunity’ to pay them 20% of the fee they wanted for each test, calling it their ‘Patient Protection Program’. Each test was on the order of $1000, so I received a series of offers to pay them $200-$300.
The tests are now all complete and I received a statement from my insurance company. Yes, they had been billed by Athena, of course, who was in no need of any confirmation of my insurance information, despite their protestations to the contrary. For each test, Athena billed their full amount. In each case, my insurance company paid them something between $100 and $200. In each and every case, Athena simply dropped their charge to the amount my insurance company was willing to pay.
The take-home lesson: Athena’s ‘Patient Protection Program’ is a first-class scam. Don’t be a sucker.