Tuesday, July 8, 2025, I had a preventive colonoscopy done today. All went well in the end—but only after nearly canceling it the day before.
It all started early in the morning—2 a.m. on July 7th, the day I should start preparation for the procedure. I woke up with an unexplained sense of unease. Something told me to double-check the estimated cost of the procedure. I remembered seeing a past email suggesting it would be a little over $200, which is okay. Still, the feeling nagged at me: What if I missed something huge?
First thing that morning, I searched my inbox. Strangely, I couldn’t find the email I remembered. But then I stumbled on another one—one I hadn’t seen before. This one listed the estimate not as $200, but as $1,240. My stomach dropped.
How could the price jump so drastically? I called and found out: the $200 was the estimate from the doctor’s office. The $1,240 came from the LEC, the facility performing the procedure.
The woman on the line explained that the procedure had been coded as diagnostic, not preventive. That meant I’d owe the full deductible and 20% of the rest—adding up to $1,240.
I told her that I’d already confirmed with my insurance company that preventive colonoscopies are fully covered. I'm not sick. There’s no condition being diagnosed. It’s routine screening. Could the procedure code be changed?
To her credit, the woman contacted the doctor’s office right away. Within the hour, the code was corrected. The billing reclassified as preventive. My financial responsibility? Zero.
I breathed a long breath. I almost paid more than $1,240 out of pocket—for a preventive procedure that should’ve been entirely free.
What This Experience Taught Me
This shows how easily a procedure can get misclassified, how opaque the healthcare system still is, and how even the most responsible patients like me can get trapped by their mistakes—unless we speak up.
What saved me wasn’t luck—it was listening to that 2 a.m. unease. When in doubt, call.
No matter where, self-advocacy is essential.