I went for a yearly full body/check up visit and blood exams were part of it. Nothing unexpected, until I got the blood exams lab bill: ~$1,000. This is way more than last year, when I paid ~$160.

After looking into it, the only difference was the specific lab doing the exams. My doctor's practice seems to be using two, and last year they used the other one. This is the only difference I can find.

Called my insurance and everything is in plan, and their prices kicked in and some coverage, but I'm still left with a hefty bill. It's true I'm on a high deductible plan, but this is the same as last year, so nothing changed except for the lab doing the analysis. And of course I was not aware of the price ahead of time, no one told me how much this would cost. I also had no reason to believe anything would change compared to last year.

I'm in NYC and, for what is worth, my Dr just screams snake oil salesman to me. He's a good Dr, to be sure, but always tries to push a test here, another test there. Even to discuss blood exams I need to schedule an appointment, where my wife will get a text from her Dr giving her a short rundown of the results. My gut feeling is that the Dr knows full well the prices and just pushes the expensive lab onto unsuspecting patients to make an extra buck.

Anything I can do to avoid the rich people lab bill?