I thought it might be interesting to start a new MRI thread after a recent thread. (I hope Jan Frodeno is well and doesn't have a stress fracture)

Many of us were discussing costs of MRIs and health insurance. I found it super interesting how costs varied greatly depending on where you lived and what type of health insurance you have (or lack of it).

I dug up an invoice from my first MRI in 2015 training for my first Ironman. I had a severe femoral neck stress fracture (top of femur bone). Back then I believe my deductible was around $2K to $2,500. I live in the Northeast of the US. I went to Dartmouth Hitchcock for my first MRI. Out of pocket I paid $1,770.11 and I found another bill related to this for $142.75 which I believe was for reading the MRI by a doctor.

What have you paid? What insurance did you have (if any)? What part of the body? I think that makes a difference too. Maybe a foot MRI is less than a hip MRI?

I'm trying to attach a photo of my first medical bill for this so you may see this edited a few times :-)

If you did 10,000 MRIs which would be roughly three an hour ten hours a day for a year.

At 500 an MRI you generate 5 million dollars

At 1000 an MRI you generate 10 million dollars.

Now you have to pay maybe two or three radiologists to read all the studies and you have to pay a tech etc but I looks like you could pay you capital costs easily in a year.

That is a great business model. One can see why in America at least some doctors own MRIs and imaging centres. A neurosurgeon could order an MRI on pretty well every patient that he sees. You generate your own demand for MRIs.

It also would suggest than an MRI should cost about 500 on average. Am I missing something here?

I thought it might be interesting to start a new MRI thread after a recent thread. (I hope Jan Frodeno is well and doesn't have a stress fracture)

Many of us were discussing costs of MRIs and health insurance. I found it super interesting how costs varied greatly depending on where you lived and what type of health insurance you have (or lack of it).

I dug up an invoice from my first MRI in 2015 training for my first Ironman. I had a severe femoral neck stress fracture (top of femur bone). Back then I believe my deductible was around $2K to $2,500. I live in the Northeast of the US. I went to Dartmouth Hitchcock for my first MRI. Out of pocket I paid $1,770.11 and I found another bill related to this for $142.75 which I believe was for reading the MRI by a doctor.

What have you paid? What insurance did you have (if any)? What part of the body? I think that makes a difference too. Maybe a foot MRI is less than a hip MRI?

I'm trying to attach a photo of my first medical bill for this so you may see this edited a few times :-)

So rich people with insurance are sweet.

No insurance, you lose.

That’s sad for those living in what you believe “the land of the free. “

Eh, that's very high. Not every scan is a wrist/shoulder/etc, you have more complicated readings that can take multiple hours, so you're not doing 30 readings a day. Maybe 5-8 per day tops if you're lucky just due to cycling patients in and out, errors, everything. And that's over simplifying things. 250 working days (365 days - 104 weekends - holidays/etc), so 250 * 8= 2000 readings which is aggressive. At $500 per scan, payback on the machine is roughly 3 years. I'm not trying to justify the cost of US healthcare and the argument is arbitrary at best, I'm just trying to give background info on numbers. Yes it's overpriced and yes I've had them and had to go through deductible BS same as others.

I had an MRI in 2017 in Phoenix. At the time I had very good insurance with Cigna. However, Cigna was reluctant to pay for an MRI that my doctor wanted me to get. I wanted it done and did not want to wait while the insurance company and doctor battled it out. So I paid cash - $500. My sense was that that was the going rate for walk-ins without insurance.