Maggie Muldoon had never heard of Medbar until she saw a $49 charge from the company show up on her credit card bill a couple of weeks ago. Upon searching her email spam folder, she found that she had a recent message from the company, which provides COVID-19 testing services. It informed her she had been billed for a test she got at Liberty Chemists in Flatbush — more than a year ago, in June 2021.
Medbar says it’s not doing anything illegal, though. The company said in a statement that patients signed an agreement when they got swabbed saying they would pay any fees not covered by their insurance — and had to enter their credit card information as a condition of getting tested. But the legislation largely put the burden on the insurance carrier to cover the full cost of testing, said Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy. If the insurance carrier fails to do so, she said, there aren’t any restrictions on providers “balance-billing” patients – billing a patient for the amount their insurance didn’t cover.
Muldoon said she reached out to Aetna and was told the bill from Medbar had already been settled. Aetna did not respond to a request for comment from Gothamist about Medbar’s COVID testing fees or the fact that the company was balance-billing Aetna members. “Altru Chemists has stopped our business partnership with MedBar as of March 2021,” the post said. “Since that time, we have performed COVID-19 PCR testing at no cost with no hidden disclosures or balance billing to our patients. Please don't feel discouraged from using our pharmacy for your future COVID-19 testing needs.”
Both Pearl and Muldoon were able to get a refund from Medbar after fighting the charges. But not everyone went to that trouble.