Intermountain Pathologists

"Best pathologist in town"

"Like the previous review, I had a very similar experience with Intermountain Pathologists which was nearing a small claims lawsuit. After 10 plus hours of my own time disputing a surprise balance bill, I was finally able to work with Montrose Memorial Hospital billing and quality assurance departments to have the bill dismissed or else I was electing to let a judge decide. A specimen was sent to Intermountain Pathologists and I was billed $49 for their services approximately 4 weeks after services were rendered - which I agreed to and paid in full. Six months later I received an $1,800 surprise balance bill from Montrose Memorial Hospital due to a claim adjustment that Intermountain Pathologists issued after sending my specimen out for further testing. I was never asked to give consent to send the specimen for additional testing (at Mayo Clinic of all places, anyone who has even minimal medical knowledge knows Mayo Clinic is the cream of the crop in regard to medical research facilities and is big $$$) nor was I ever informed it would cost $1,800. I still have no answer as to why the surprise balance bill came 6 months after services were rendered. Two medical professionals informed me the additional THIRTEEN complex slides that were ordered by Intermountain Pathologists was an excessive number of slides ordered. After calling Intermountain Pathologists, the receptionist was disrespectful and rude by interrupting me, speaking over me, and belittling me on the phone. Thankfully the staff at Montrose Memorial Hospital were kind in working with me and willing to understand my position as to why I should not be responsible for these services I had no knowledge of nor provided consent for. After running my dispute up 5 chains of command and informing I planned to let a judge decide the dispute was the matter finally resolved. I learned through this process Intermountain Pathologists send 80% of specimens out for further testing. If I performed my job at 20% efficiency, I would no longer have employment. Additionally it is not Intermountain Pathologists practice to obtain consent from a patient to send labs for further testing. They take it upon themselves to omit the patient from their own medical decisions to test as they see fit and at the expense of the patient. THIS IS WRONG! I recommend not signing any consent with your primary physician who may send labs to IP and insist (in writing) Intermountain Pathologists contact you prior to running any labs and again if your specimen needs to be sent out (to Mayo Clinic or other) for further testing. Every patient has a right to know what tests are being run, the associated costs, when additional tests are recommended, costs associated with additional testing, and provide consent at various points throughout the process. The outcome of my case was an a change in process for Intermountain Pathologists in which they plan to work with primary physicians to change consent forms (as if people read all of the fine print) noting that the pathologists may send labs out for additional testing, regardless of cost, as they see fit. This enables Intermountain Pathologists to turn patients into health science projects at the patient’s expense. My recommendation is to keep patients involved in all realms of their medical decisions and make a phone call to them when additional testing is recommended so the patient is aware of associated costs and may provide consent!"

"I feel this company is taking advantage of people that do not have medical insurance. I received a bill for $808.00 for a tissue exam. They seem to be charging more than double what they should. The entire office visit with a doctor taking the biopsies lasted an hour and was less than half the price of what they charged me. OVER CHARGED !!!"