I had a disc removed from the L4-5 disc space. The bill came back saying they sent it to the lab. That was an extra charge. Is this really necessary? It’s just disc material.

The question about routine lab testing of tissue specimens like disc material has been brought up many times. There are arguments on either side. On the one hand only one in 1,000 disc is likely to have anything wrong with it.

On the other hand, the simple $25.00 test could alert the doctor to a possible infection or cancer. In these cases finding serious problems early gave the patient a jump on treatment for an otherwise unknown problem.

Would that one person think a $25.00 charge was worth saving his or her life? Probably. Some doctors think it’s worth the gamble. More research is needed to confirm these beliefs.