I went to Quest Diagnostics in Staten Island for bloodwork last Tuesday, June 6th, 2011. The technician that took my blood failed to take blood in a proper manner and now my arm is black and blue and yellow and it hurts.

Quest billed my wife over $625.00 for lab services ordered by her Doctor. We have no insurance, and when I called to see if they would discount the bill for a cash pay, the customer service rep stated that it is against company policy to discount a private pay account. Discounts are reserved for contract customers only. In other words screw you patient, we love Insurance money more than you. Even after explaining my situation, they were completely unwilling to work with us at all. BEWARE OF QUEST DIAGNOSTICS!! They are not in it to help patients they are chasing insurance $$ and if along the way you as a little patient need a break (one that they offer nearly every insurance company) they will deny you the price they offer to the corporations. I have now set up a payment plan to pay my total bill, it should be payed off when our child who is still unborn is already out of diapers.

Don't bother making appointments. First you search for an appointments number. Its not on your prescription form. When you arrive at appointed time, others coming in after you sometimes get called before you.

Watch billing like a hawk.

Check box yourself, if you do not want to pay for a test that is not insured, at least at that visit for taking blood work.

I have been trying for over 2 years to get Quest to send a bill to my insurance company. Blue Cross says the lab work is 100% covered and would be paid as soon as they received the bill. But I can't get Quest to send a bill. They have stated to me on several statements that they send the bill and Blue Cross denied it. But talking to Blue Cross they say they have NEVER denied any claim for me, and they NEVER received a bill. Blue Cross has informed me that even if Quest sent it to the wrong address...it would be logged in their computer. If they sent incomplete info...it would show. NOTHING shows in the computer...NOTHING has EVER been received from Quest at ALL.
I tried getting a copy of the bill myself and all they will send is a statement which is not enough for insurance to pay. Do I have any rights at all? Just send the bill to the insurance company and they will pay. Still...almost 3 years later...no bill to the insurance company. Just bill collectors calling and hanging up on my phone 10 to 12 times a day. Sheesh! This company is a scam

For a YEAR, I had a running battle with Quest Diagnostics regarding billing for a set of laboratory tests requested by one of my physicians. When the sent the bill to Blue Cross Blue Shield for reimbursement, Quest used a diagnostic code that was different from what the doctor used on the requesting prescription, AND also they requested the reimbursement in the category of "medical care" instead of "diagnostic pathology." As a result, of course, BCBS denied the claim and Quest sent me a bill for$626.80, which is more than six times the "usual and customary" cost for that set of tests. For a while I went round and round with Quest, then I contacted BCBS and was told that the claim would be paid if Quest resubmitted with appropriate codes. I contacted Quest with this information, but they resubmitted the bill again with the same old codes they had used previously. Finally I contacted my physician and asked her office to intervene on my behalf. It took multiple interventions on my physician's part, including formal appeals to BCBS, before BCBS finally paid the claim. The "allowable amount" turned out to be $98.11, of which I was supposed to be responsible for 10% co-pay and BCBS paid the remaining $88.33 directly to Quest. Elapsed time: one full year. Interestingly, I have not yet received a corrected billing from Quest. I sent them payment along with a copy of BCBS's Explanation of Benefits. We'll see what happens. I don't trust these folks.