Aetna Lies About Coverage, Meadowlands Hospital Keeps Billing

When I turned 55, my GP recommended a routine screening colonoscopy, even though there is no history of colon cancer in my family (or any cancer other than skin cancer, which is completely different). 

I went along (as most of us do), and he gave me a recommendation for a gastroenterologist, Dr. Jan Shin.  I called Aetna to be sure that she was in my network, and she was.  I visited her, and her office set up an appointment for me at the Mulberry Ambulatory Surgical Center in Newark, NJ.  A few days later, I called Aetna to be sure that Mulberry is also in my network.  The very nice Aetna guy told me that my plan covers out-of-network plans at 50% after an $8,000 deductible.  As you can see from the email that I sent my husband that day (at the bottom of the page), I thanked him and then started over with a new GI - because I did not want "an unexpected bill for probably thousands of dollars that wasn't covered at all by insurance."

I found another gastroenterologist, Dr. Alaa Salah-Eldin.  His office informed me that he does his colonoscopies at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus, NJ.  So I again got on the phone with Aetna, and this time I was assured that Meadowlands Hospital is in my network. Based on that information, I went ahead with the procedure.

What Aetna DID NOT tell me was that I would still have to pay a $4,000 deductible.
If they had, I would have cancelled immediately.  I was not sick. There's NO colon cancer in my family. I did this as a recommended, prescribed screening by my doctor. I only had it because I was led to believe that it would not cost me anything.

Meadowlands Hospital is now billing me for $3,756.20 for a routine

procedure (which took maybe half an hour) that I would NOT have had if Aetna had provided me with the information necessary to make an informed decision.