Complaints over Stat Lab bills spur state investigation [Herald-Times, Bloomington, Ind.]

Oct. 17--The Office of the Indiana Attorney General has started investigating several consumer billing issue complaints against a defunct Bloomington laboratory.

Consumers have filed nine complaints against that laboratory, Stat Lab, in just over three weeks. All remain open and under investigation, according to spokeswoman Erin Reece.

The attorney general's office lists all but one of the complaints as dealing with unauthorized billing. The remaining complaint is marked as a billing dispute. The attorney general's office is releasing no other information about the investigation.

The earliest of the complaints were filed Sept. 24, a few weeks after Stat Lab surprised many of its former patients in Bloomington by sending them bills requesting hundreds of dollars for services provided at the end of 2012. Those bills went out months after the laboratory closed its doors in March.

They bore Stat Lab'sBloomington address, but it was crossed out in pen and replaced with a Georgia address. And they contained an insert stating that Stat Lab would no longer deal with insurance companies.

That insert said Stat Lab had submitted insurance claims that had not been paid. But many patients said Stat Lab was under contract with their insurer at the time they had their blood drawn.

Stat Lab was under contract with the area's major insurer, Anthem BlueCross BlueShield, at the end of 2012. Dr. Gene Gebele, Stat Lab's former medical director and previous owner, said the laboratory stopped accepting Anthem patients in February because its claims were not being paid.

Gebele said in an email Wednesday that he had heard nothing about any Indiana attorney general investigation. He also asked about the term unauthorized billing.

"Stat Lab intends to be paid for the work performed on these patients as it has in the past," he said in his email. "We were not in the business of free lab work, which would be a violation of federal kickback regulations punishable by fines, etc."

Stat Lab has refiled its insurance claims, Gebele said. Anthem agreed to process them, he added.

Anthem is working on Stat Lab bills. The insurer's grievance and appeals department is involved in processing Stat Lab claims, spokesman Tony Felts confirmed.

Gebele originally planned to send out more bills directly to patients. But he cut off those plans after making headway in the insurance billing dispute. No Anthem patient will be billed again until the insurer processes claims, he said in his Wednesday email.

Anyone who has already paid a bill received directly from Stat Lab will receive network pricing if their insurance approves their claim, according to Gebele. Their money is being held, he said in his email.

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