Fee-for-service testing allows physicians to contribute to the national effort to control healthcare costs by purchasing advanced toxicology and other testing directly from Western Slope Laboratory. This type of service is not available for the testing of samples provided by patients covered under any federal healthcare program including, without limitation, Medicare, Medicaid or TriCare, whether as a primary or secondary insurance plan. Western Slope Laboratory does not participate in federal healthcare programs and is not credentialed to bill any third-party payers.
Fee-for-service testing is available from Western Slope Laboratory for samples provided by patients covered by commercial insurance health plans or those that pay privately.
Care should be taken to determine whether state or local laws prohibit such an arrangement or whether purchasing testing services and billing them to commercial insurance companies is in violation of any contract between the provider and the insurance company.
In the process of billing non-federal health care program payers, additional care should be taken to ensure the accuracy of the billing and the necessity of the testing.