patrick.net

Similar thing happened to me in Texas last month too. However, I didn't use my insurance for a cat scan because insurance was taking too fucking long to get a reason from my doc that they would approve.

So I did it without insurance and the price was less than half! I was floored and had essentially the same discussion with a guy at the front desk of the clinic. Fortunately I wasn't screwed over like this guy though.

Not only is the state of California fundamentally insane, but the ambulance companies seem to be run by the mafia. They are some of the worst scammers out there.

In California there is a law against "balance billing", in which a medical provider agrees to take a certain insurance payment as payment in full, but then turns around and tries to collect a large additional amount from the patient, claiming it is owed when it is not.

Ambulance companies do this all the time, and the state simply does not enforce the law. Maybe some deals were made in Sacramento.