Complaints

This profile includes complaints for TriCore Reference Laboratories's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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TriCore Reference Laboratories has 10 locations, listed below.

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• 

  TriCore Reference Laboratories

  1001 Woodward Pl NE Albuquerque, NM 87102

• 

  TriCore Reference Laboratories

  4801 Beckner Rd Santa Fe, NM 87507-3641

• 

  TriCore Reference Laboratories

  1700 Saint Michaels Dr Ste B Santa Fe, NM 87505-7714

• 

  TriCore Reference Laboratories

  PO Box 27561 Department 30775 Albuquerque, NM 87125

• 

  TriCore Reference Laboratories

  118 Central Park Sq Los Alamos, NM 87544-4021

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/22/2025

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  There was an error in a claim filed for lab services on 9/24/2024 resulting in a denied claim on services that should have been covered. Tri-core did not bill me for these services until March, 2025 at which point it was too late for me to refile with my insurance company. I contacted Tri-core and they offered to reduce my payment to $39.10 on June 3rd. I agreed but my bill has not been reduced from $246.12 to $39.10. I have followed up attempting to resolve the bill twice.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/16/2025

  We
  appreciate the Customer taking the time to submit the complaint and allowing us
  to investigate this matter. TriCore’s business office reviewed his account and
  determined the root cause of the issue was due to illegible diagnosis code(s) from
  the ordering provider.
  
  The Customer
  contacted TriCore several times in an effort to resolve the coding issues and
  insurance denials. TriCore also made several attempts to obtain the corrected
  information and to communicate with the Customer’s insurance. To date, TriCore
  has not received a response from the insurance. TriCore offered the Customer
  the underinsured discount, leaving $39.10 as the Customer’s responsibility,
  which has been paid, leaving a zero balance. TriCore has communicated the
  resolution with the Customer. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/24/2025

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  
  
  Better Business Bureau®:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ******** and received an invoice showing my account is paid, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  
  ******** *******

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/22/2024

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I had surgery on January 29th, 2024. My surgeon sent pathology to ******* to test for what I assume to be malignancy. I just received a bill for $477.48 and the bill does not indicate that my insurance was filed at all. I indeed do have insurance and there was no attempt made to file this claim against it. My issue is that I have called ******* numerous times, and have been on hold for HOURS, and then left my phone number for a call back. I finally received a call back and the representative hung up on me as I was validating my personal information, and this person made no attempt to call me back. I have called a few more times this week and left my phone # and have not heard back from anyone. This bill says 'payment due upon receipt', but I know I do not owe this and it will be sent to collections if it is not handled properly. This is not the first time ******* has completely messed up a billing process. My account # is ************ and the statement date is 5/8/2024. I do not know what else to do to get this handled since I am unable to talk to a live person to discuss, and I don't see anywhere on their website where I may dispute the bill. I am trying to not have my credit score ruined. Thank you for any help you may provide.

  Business Response

  Date: 05/29/2024

  ******* transitioned billing systems at the beginning of the
  year, and this transition caused a delay in producing patient statements. On
  May 10th patient statements were released and we identified that
  some patients received statements with full billed charges, due to a system
  configuration that was automatically removing patients’ insurance. 
  
  We have corrected the system configuration and are working
  to add insurance coverage back to the impacted patient accounts so that we can
  bill their insurance.  Emails and letters have been sent to the patients
  who were impacted, and points of contact have been established so that patients
  can get in touch with us should they need to. 

  ******* contacted the Consumer, explained the issue, corrected the account, and assured her that the account is not processing for collections. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/30/2024

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  
  
  Better Business Bureau®:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  
  ****** ********

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/24/2024

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Edit
  Description of complaint:
  In January of 2023, our ******** coverage changed from ************ to *****. I went to a physician at the ******** medical group. After my visit I was given a Lab slip, and told to go to the Tricore location inside the office on Irving. I got my blood drawn, asked if I owed anything , and was told no. In February of 2023, I received a bill for 152.75. I contacted my insurance, they contacted Tricore, and were told the charge needed to be unbundled with individual codes instead of one code. Tricore agreed to resubmit the claim. We never heard another thing from Tricore or ******** until December demanding payment. I again reached out to insurance again, they have again contacted tri-core and ********* We have reached out to ** ******* the physician that sent us to Tricore with the incorrect code. We never received a response from him. We now have a collection company demanding payment. We have always prided ourselves on our credit, and are now being forced to pay a bill, to ensure our credit isn't affected. All because a code isn't being corrected for payment. We are living on a fixed income. And the shear amount of laziness on their part is amazing. I can look on the internet, and see this code that was used is not accept by ********* and what code needs to be used to correct the problem. But we are receiving absolutely no help from anyone.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/14/2024

  TriCore,
  Inc., (“TriCore”) received the above-referenced complaint on February 26, 2024.
  Absent a valid HIPAA Authorization, TriCore is not able to provide you any
  specific patient Protected Health Information. However, we are able to provide
  the information on which TriCore relied to respond to the consumer’s complaint.
  
  We
  appreciate the consumer taking the time to submit the complaint and allowing us
  to investigate this matter. TriCore’s business office reviewed his account and
  determined the root cause of the issue was due to the payor’s EOB stating that
  a CPT code was not covered under ********, resulting in a denial and a balance
  designated as “patient responsibility”. The CPT code needed to be “unbundled” in
  order to reprocess. TriCore sent a corrected claim and the payor denied another
  portion as “patient responsibility”.
  
  Following
  a more detailed review by TriCore’s Revenue Cycle & Billing department leadership,
  it was determined that the account was not properly rebilled, which caused the
  second instance of patient responsibility. The account has been adjusted to
  $0.00 balance and the consumer was notified.
  
  We take
  every complaint very seriously so we appreciate the opportunity to hear how we
  can do better. We regret that the consumer had a negative billing and customer
  service experience with TriCore. This matter is under review with TriCore
  leadership and corrective action will be taken to ensure bills go out properly.
  We value the opportunity to provide the consumer with laboratory services and
  hope that he will allow us to continue to do so in the future.

  TriCore, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/28/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  My one-year-old daughter had tests done at Tricore. They sent us a bill on 9/5 and we called Tricore on 9/13. We told Tricore that they need to run the charges through our insurance, which they did not do. Tricore said they would go through our insurance and send a new bill. We never received a new bill or any correspondence. On 11/27 we received a letter from a debt collector saying we owed Tricore a new amount. I called Tricore and they admitted they never sent another bill so we had no way of knowing we owed this new amount. However, they refused to recall the debt back from the debt collector and allow us to pay Tricore.

  Business Response

  Date: 01/10/2024

  TriCore,
  Inc., (“TriCore”) received the above-referenced complaint on November 29, 2023.
  We appreciate the Consumer taking the time to submit the complaint and or
  allowing us to investigate this matter. We apologize for the delayed response. Absent
  a valid HIPAA Authorization, TriCore is not able to provide specific patient
  Protected Health Information. However, we are able to provide the information
  on which TriCore relied to respond to the Consumer’s complaint.
  
  TriCore’s
  business office reviewed his account and determined the root cause of the issue
  was due to confusion about whether insurance was to be billed or if it was to
  be billed to the patient, as was indicated on the testing order requisition. Further
  investigation determined that the patient’s insurance information was, in fact,
  attached to the requisition but because the payment section of the requisition
  indicated it was to be billed to the patient, that is what occurred. Additionally,
  it was determined TriCore’s contracted debt collection agency failed to research
  whether there was an error, which would have brought a resolution much quicker.
  
  When the
  Consumer made a follow up call to the debt collection agency in an effort to
  obtain a statement before paying the outstanding debt, they were instructed to
  call TriCore’s Revenue Cycle and Billing department directly instead of creating
  the task to generate a statement and email it. A statement was eventually emailed
  and the outstanding balance was paid promptly.  
  
  This
  matter is under review with TriCore leadership and corrective action has been
  taken to ensure bills go out properly. TriCore is also working with its
  contracted debt collection agency to ensure there is adequate customer service
  training and that they have access to TriCore’s policies and procedures for
  soft debt collection.
  
  We take
  every complaint very seriously so we appreciate the opportunity to hear how we
  can do better. We regret that the Consumer had a negative billing and customer
  service experience with TriCore. We value the opportunity to provide them with
  laboratory services and hope that he will allow us to continue to do so in the
  future.
  
  Sincerely,
  TriCore

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/01/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Called to resolve the insurance issue on two separate occasions. I had insurance coverage from two providers who were disputing the claim. I called the first time to provide Medicaid information since Tricare disputed the claim stating that they were secondary. Called back about 3 weeks later when I got my first notice that the account would be sent to collections to ask what I could do or if insurance would cover the claim or not. Customer service representative stated they didn’t know if Medicaid would cover it but would send the claim. Fast forward to today, I received a notice from a debt collector stating the full amount was sent to collections whenever the business didn’t even try to bill either insurance or try to reach out to the patient. I received no call and was given no resolution. Now I have a medical debt that should have been covered by Tricare for any remaining amount.
  I should have been contacted if the claims were rejected and given an opportunity to pay the debt if both insurances had rejected the claim.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/28/2023

  Verbal update: Reversed from collections and rebilled to the insurance.