<prompt> Human: Hello All - I have an issue that has been haunting me for a bit, and Im trying to tackle this before it gets out of hand.Prequel: Had some issues getting pregnant for a significant amount of time Turned to a Fertility Clinic to try to investigate the issue and do other means of getting pregnant. Decided after a couple failed IUI attempts to start doing IVF In-Vitro Fertilization. For anyone that doesnt have experience with fertility treatment, the first phase of IVF is to take a large amount of injection based drugs for the female to produce as many eggs as possible. These eggs will later be combined with my boys and will be used to create embryos that will later be put back in to create the actual pregnancy. I clarified with the financial counselor Is Everything in this procedure covered? Is Everything in Network. They assured me that yes, everything was covered and was In-Network The drugs required for this initial phase of producing eggs are upwards to 15,000. That is their actual cost and thankfully, my insurance covers this, however they have a lifetime maximum of approx. 20,000. So basically, we get one chance with these medications because they will not pay for them again. Im incredibly lucky to have this coverage in the first place, otherwise I would have to cover the full amount out of my own pocket. These drugs require about a months worth of taking, since they coincide with the female cycle for producing eggs. When it was all said and done, when they were finally ready to retrieve the eggs after taking all of these expensive medications, that is when they decided to tell me that this procedure is a part of the lab and is not covered In-Network by my insurance. At this point, we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Our choices were either 1 Decline the procedure, and we would effectively lose the eggs that were produced by the expensive medications. And you would not be able to transition in time to another facility to do the procedure either. Option 2 Accept it and continue. Obviously we decided to go with 2, because there is no choice. Our lifetime max for fertility medication was reached. Clearly this was a type of extortion in which they withheld information about their lab which they have ownership of, so its not a separate entity, in order to put us in this situation. At the end I feel incredibly manipulated.The Situation: The end result is a bill of approx 7,000. This is from having to fill up an Out-Of-Network deductible, as well as a much lower percentage coinsurance. On top of that, they used balance billing since my insurance would only cover what was a reasonable price for the procedures, so the Lab just passed on what my insurance wouldnt pay as well expecting me to pay it in full. They could have charged 100,000 for the procedure and my insurance would say Hmmm, we will only cover what a reasonable price of 10,000 for this, and the lab would pass on the other 90,000 expecting me to pay it. To Put it Simply, I dont agree with this debt and I refuse to pay it. Regardless of what anyone here may feel about agreeing to it, I put this more at the form of manipulation and malpractice - and I have absolutely no problem fighting this. What is the worst that can happen at this point? Debt collectors all over my wife? I dont really care to be honest, both myself and my wife have good credit, and we have no plans to try to get a new mortgage or anything anytime soon. Even if we did, this shouldnt affect my credit. Lastly, lets not argue as to if I should accept responsibility for this debt or not. At this point I am declaring at this point that I will not accept responsibility for it. I attempted to go in to the financial adviser, tell them my side of the story - she scanned in the bill I received in the mail and said they would look into it and get back to me. I never heard anything and recently received anotehr bill. One other thing to Note: This lab has our eggs still. So if and when we want future children, they may try to withhold what we have. I dont know if they will or not, but its definitely something that I need to be careful with. Since it is my property that is stored in their lab, I could try to have it transferred to another lab.What Should I do?At this point, these are the options I see ahead. I am trying to identify what the best option may be, and that is where I need everyones help and Input here. Below are the options I see. Ignore the Statement. The statute of limitations in the state of Texas is 4 Years. Its a risk, but its a risk I might be willing to take to see if they actually try to pursue this in a legal sense. If they do, I am willing to fight this from a legal perspective given the circumstances and the overall amount 7000. Go in to the branch office again and try to speak with the financial counselor. As stated earlier, I did this about 1-2 months ago and they said they would look into it and get back to me. Nothing occurred. Start taking action on my part. File a complaint with the State medical board for balance billing and deceiving their patients. My state also offers mediation and support for resolving: Try to call and reason with the billing department. I honestly doubt they will do anything other than offer a payment plan. At the end of the day, a billing department isnt whom I need to talk to as far as arguing the debt. They are just there to collect. Though if it helps, perhaps I should add in that I will be filing medical board complaints, etc... Any and all advice is appreciated!  <response>: Just pay it after negotiating it down as far as they will go. You had way more coverage for that type thing than most people do. Was 18k out of pocket when we did it as insurance paid for next to nothing.Not worth the battle. 