One of the big scams in Texas is if you go to an in-network hospital, the ER doctors are likely to be out of network. Expect huge out of pocket expenses even if you’ve done all you can to try to follow the rules.
And if someone calls 911 for you expect to pay hundreds of dollars to the city for the fire department answering the call, even if you don’t get in the ambulance.
So the threat of a multi-hundred thousand dollar bill for a routine test is a bit far fetched, but not totally without basis. I’d expect her to be able to get the test and results for under $10,000. But if she’d go to LabCorp or Quest, it would probably be under $300.
In our little burg, we pay$10/month on our water bill, and that covers our ambulance service. It was $5/month forever, but it recently went up. It’s a Godsend. Other towns in our area do the same.