The Genetic Testing ‘Bait-and-Switch’

An Arm and a Leg

Society & Culture, Medicine, Health, Health & Fitness, Documentary

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2022

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Is it possible for a health care company to make enough people mad about their billing practices that it hurts their business? For one genetic testing company, maybe so.

An Arm and a Leg listener Jessica got a test that’s become routine in early pregnancy: non-invasive prenatal testing. It was supposed to be $99. But then — after she took the test — that turned into $250. And when she asked questions, she was told it could go up to $800 if she didn’t pay up quick. , Jessica looked up the testing company, and found out that lots of people experienced what she called “the genetic testing bait-and-switch.”

And she’s not the only one who noticed.

When some guys on Wall Street, plus New York Times reporter Sarah Kliff, started hearing about those bills, the company found itself in some hot water.

Here’s a transcript of the episode.

Bonus reading:

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there. Today's story is about whether it's possible for a health care company to make
0:04.4	enough people mad enough that there are actual consequences. And spoiler, the answer may be yes.
0:12.1	One person who got pretty mad was an arm and a leg listener named Jessica who wrote to us.
0:17.2	Our producer Emily Pisa Kratos spoke to Jessica, got the whole story, and we've come to find out
0:23.1	Jessica is not the only one who's noticed something fishy with this company. Hey Emily.
0:27.5	Hey Dan. This story starts where a lot of health care stories start at the OBGYN.
0:33.7	Jessica had just found out she was pregnant. She and her partner had been trying to have a baby
0:38.0	for years and she'd recently experienced a pregnancy loss. So she was feeling cautiously
0:43.4	optimistic when she went for her eight weeks scan. So that's the first kind of big appointment.
0:48.4	They call it the confirmation appointment where we got our first ultrasound. That's also where we
0:52.8	discovered we were having twins. So as I know, pretty exciting appointment. It was at this same
1:00.0	super eventful appointment that her doctor said, Hey, at your next appointment, the 12-week checkup,
1:05.5	we can do this new thing. Non-invasive prenatal testing. What they said was, you know, it screens for
1:12.4	some trisomy disorders like Down syndrome, and it could also tell you the sex of the babies.
1:17.6	He said, insurance usually doesn't cover this test. But out of pocket, it's only $99.
1:24.0	Jessica mulled it over. Since I'm geriatric or 35, he decided it's better to know about this,
1:30.8	chromosomal abnormalities, just because there's a slightly higher risk as you get a little bit older.
1:36.0	But we were also, I mean, very eager to know the sex. So we decided the $100 was that was worth it to us.
1:42.7	So Jessica gets the test. And if you think she just got a bill for $99 and it was over,
1:48.0	well, welcome to this show. This is an arm and a leg show about why health care costs so freaking much.
1:54.7	And what we can maybe do about it. I'm Dan Weissman. I'm a reporter. I like a challenge. So our job
1:59.4	on this show is to take one of the most in raging, terrifying, depressing parts of American life
	...

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