I ran into a similarly infuriating issue with a hospital.
We have insurance. But we knew the procedure wasn't covered by insurance. So we would get the list price. We asked about the cash price. But they said we couldn't get the cash price because we have insurance.
They said that you cannot get the cash price if you have insurance because the hospital requires procedures always go through insurance if you have it. But we could lie and claim we don't have insurance. On the day of the procedure, they said, oh, if we bill it like this, your insurance would cover it! Sounded good to us.
They were wrong. So we ended up with the list price.
Most times its not definitive if the insurance will cover a procedure until after. I know for myself there is a fairly "cosmetic" produce I want, but no matter which surgeon or insurance I have I can't get an answer from either that isn't basically, "do the procedure and after it will be determined if its covered". While the procedure isn't life threatening it definitely would be quality of life improving. Unfortunately, its generally considered cosmetic, at least until later in life where the side effects of not having the procedure can become life threatening.
We have insurance. But we knew the procedure wasn't covered by insurance. So we would get the list price. We asked about the cash price. But they said we couldn't get the cash price because we have insurance.
They said that you cannot get the cash price if you have insurance because the hospital requires procedures always go through insurance if you have it. But we could lie and claim we don't have insurance. On the day of the procedure, they said, oh, if we bill it like this, your insurance would cover it! Sounded good to us.
They were wrong. So we ended up with the list price.