I also had Caris testing, and it made me eligible for the first clinical trial that I went on. So I guess I'm glad I did it. (I'm having a second biopsy next week for my second clinical trial because they won't accept the Caris results from last April because I had a partial response on the first trial.)

The billing is a mess though. The hospital took two weeks to even place the test order because they said they were getting insurance approval. Whatever they did, I didn't get any documentation, and it certainly didn't preclude insurance problems. I was freaking out from the insurance denials I was getting, but then I talked to Caris, and they said that if the insurance denied it, the most I would have to pay would be $350. So I stopped worrying so much. But there may still be problems.

Apparently Caris bills for the test in two parts: 1) the immunohistochemistry, and 2) the DNA sequencing. My insurance company decided that the IHC was "covered" and out of network, so I owed Caris $1000 just for that part. So far they have declared the sequencing "not covered" and say that I owe Caris the full $21,000 that they try to bill for that. Caris is still trying to get the insurance company to "cover" the sequencing (note that this is 8 months later).

I received the $1000 bill for the IHC and complained vociferously to Caris. Ultimately I paid $45 for that. They still haven't tried to bill me for the sequencing, but I'm going to raise h*** if they try to get more than $305 out of me.