At a followup visit a year after Elizabeth Moreno had a disk removed to
successfully treat her crippling pain, her doctor asked her to leave a
urine sample; a few months later, Sunset Labs LLC of Houston sent her a bill for $17,800.
Moreno’s doctor had seemingly ordered the urine test to ensure that she
hadn’t abused her post-operative opioid pain medication, but he didn’t
just order tests for opioids: he also asked the lab to check for
indicators of “cocaine, methadone, anti-anxiety drugs and several other
drugs she had never heard of” including amphetamines and PCP.
Those unnecessary tests could certainly raise the price on a simple
urine test, but it gets worse because of Sunset Labs’ crazy
price-gouging: the amphetamine test was $1,700 and the PCP test was
$425. The lab also charged an eye-popping $850 for a pair of simple
tests meant to detect tampering with the sample.
Blue Shield refused to pay the bill, and also advised Moreno that in
their opinion, the services rendered were worth about $100, not $17,800.
As doctors have become more cautious about opioid addiction, the use of
routine urine drug tests has increased. This has led to a bonanza for
sleazy, price-gouging testing labs, who are on the receiving end of a
golden shower of riches.
Moreno’s father is an MD; he settled with the lab for $5,000 and filed a
complaint with the Texas AG for "price gouging of staggering
proportions.“
