How much is an MRI? (if you had no insurance)

[RadiclDreamer]

Depends, I work in a hospital and have had them in others. Typically between 1k-1.5k

 

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: hurt
The cat scan I had last month at the ER was billed at $2K for the IV contrast and another $2K for the scan.

IV contrast for CT scans costs the hospital $25 per scan, and it's about another $20 for the high pressure syringe and tubing.

Obviously, you need a trained nurse to inject it, and a doctor to be around in case of a reaction.

But $2k is quite some markup!

 

[bignateyk]

The bill for mine showed around $2-3K (I only paid $15 for it with insurance)

 

[jlfirehawk]

For my back with contrast (I have one every year) it is $1200, for my sons yearly mri for epilepsy checkup it is $900. I have to have contrast so they have to have a dr there. I have found it is cheaper to go to a place that just does scanning and not a hospital, hospitals tend to jack the price up all the time.

 

[SpazzyChicken]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
What i love is the MRI machines are usually donated by a business or organization, then the hospital turns around and charges you $5k a pop to use it... hmm...

What are you talking about? While this may rarely occur, this is far from the norm.

 

[Vegitto]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
What i love is the MRI machines are usually donated by a business or organization, then the hospital turns around and charges you $5k a pop to use it... hmm...

Yeah, but from what I hear, those things need a LOT of power.. I believe someone said they use up like $50 a pop or something.. Really, really power hungry.

 

[slsmnaz]

Insurance paid it but mine was around $1500 (last Oct.). I sat there and watched golf the whole time so it was pretty nice.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: SpazzyChicken

Originally posted by: Acanthus
What i love is the MRI machines are usually donated by a business or organization, then the hospital turns around and charges you $5k a pop to use it... hmm...

What are you talking about? While this may rarely occur, this is far from the norm.

Ok, I'd also like to poke some holes in this guys argument.

#1 They arent free
#2 Lots of power
#3 Lots of space
#4 Technician to run it
#5 Someone to read it
#6 Storage for the results be it digital or hard copy
#7 Billing people to bill you
#8 Many people dont pay
#9 Maintenance isnt free
#10 Need I go on?

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: slsmnaz
Insurance paid it but mine was around $1500 (last Oct.). I sat there and watched golf the whole time so it was pretty nice.

Watching golf, ouch thats painful

 

[mundane]

My wife had crappy insurance, and we were expected to pay a couple of grand out of pocket for a head MRI. The place charged a flat $1k for people w/o insurance, so we went that route.

 

[slsmnaz]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: slsmnaz
Insurance paid it but mine was around $1500 (last Oct.). I sat there and watched golf the whole time so it was pretty nice.

Watching golf, ouch thats painful

Better than being stuck in the thing with nothing to look at. I liked the stand-up unit

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: SpazzyChicken

Originally posted by: Acanthus
What i love is the MRI machines are usually donated by a business or organization, then the hospital turns around and charges you $5k a pop to use it... hmm...

What are you talking about? While this may rarely occur, this is far from the norm.

Ok, I'd also like to poke some holes in this guys argument.

#1 They arent free
#2 Lots of power
#3 Lots of space
#4 Technician to run it
#5 Someone to read it
#6 Storage for the results be it digital or hard copy
#7 Billing people to bill you
#8 Many people dont pay
#9 Maintenance isnt free
#10 Need I go on?

#1 if they are donated they most certainly are (both of our hospitals had drives for our new MRI machines)
#2 $50 a pop?
#3 fixed cost
#4 $22/hr
#5 Specialists get paid no matter what they do
#6 pennies if digital like any modern hospital
#7 medical coding people make about $14/hr
#8 unknown cost
#9 Agreed
#10 well we've made it about $200 after the dye injections, so we are still $1800 short, id understand if the hospital had to recoup the cost of the machine, but in both cases here in erie PA, they dont. The money was raised by local unions.

 

[Mark R]

MRI Scanner maintenance is about $250k per year, for a typical scanner. Very high end scanners are more expensive to maintain.

Generally MRI scanners are run by 2 technicians - say $50/hour for the pair.

Contrast agent - $200 per injection for the cheap stuff, up to $800 per injection for more expensive stuff

Power - unlikely to be a significant issue. Maybe $100 per day.

Image storage - $10 per page if laser printed (could easily run to 10 pages for a complex scan). $10-20 if stored digitally (medical grade optical discs are expensive (about $10-20 per GB) and a service contract for a medical image 'PACS' server could easily cost $1-2 per GB per year + power costs)

 

[boomerang]

What's the charge for the Contrast Agent that they eventually find was really, really bad for you?

Charge for an MRI for enemy combatants - free! For them, the good ol' US taxpayers get the bill.

 

[Casawi]

Get insurance before you get an MRI

 

[SlowSpyder]

I'd have to double check the bill, but I believe the MRI on my back (I have some pertruding discs) was billed to my insurance at $19,000.

 

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: boomerang
What's the charge for the Contrast Agent that they eventually find was really, really bad for you?

Charge for an MRI for enemy combatants - free! For them, the good ol' US taxpayers get the bill.

Well, the most common contrast agents used in MRI are based on gadolinium solutions. There are about a dozen different agents that use Gd with slightly different properties. Prices of the agents vary from about $100 to $600 depending on which one the doc wants to use

None have proven to be particularly dangerous, and they are probably at least as safe as the contrast agents used for CT. However, there has been a very rare, but often fatal disease (nephrogenic systemic fibrosis - NSF) identified which appears to start when some gadolinium agents are used in people with severe kidney failure who require dialysis. Although the manufacturers recommended against the use of the agents by people with severe kidney failure, some docs nevertheless thought that the risk was worth taking because of the extra information available from the scan.

There is still some controversy over the exact cause of NSF. The current theory is that the Gd-contrast agents are large organic-Gd complexes, which are filtered and removed by the kidneys in a few minutes to hours. In kidney failure the agents stay in the body as dialysis can remove them only extremely slowly. While the complex molecules seem to be pretty safe, in time, some contrast agents degrade in the body. In people needing dialysis, the agents can hang around in the blood for weeks (because the dialysis does such a poor job). However, as they agents degrade they release highly toxic unbound gadolinium.

The FDA has now essentially banned use of Gd in people with moderate or severe kidney failure. Despite this, many hospitals are now changing over to Gd contrast agents with different molecular structures that don't degrade, even for people with normal kidneys. Indeed, the manufacturer of the contrast agent with the most stable molecular structure has suddenly found demand for their product surging, and to give them credit, despite the surge it is still priced significantly lower than the more traditional agents.

 

[Crucial]

look in the phone book and start calling around for the best price.

 

[Squisher]

I don't see why people aren't believing me when I say it cost so little.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/Squisher/MRI.jpg

No contrast was used. Good, because I'm allergic to iodine in the contrasts that I've had for my kidney stones.

 

[Kaspian]

Originally posted by: aphex
Just curious

It all depends where you get them. I would call around and get prices.

 

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: Squisher
I don't see why people aren't believing me when I say it cost so little.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/Squisher/MRI.jpg

No contrast was used. Good, because I'm allergic to iodine in the contrasts that I've had for my kidney stones.

$186 Seems a reasonable estimate for 'cost price' for a relatively simple scan (e.g. standard non-contrast scan of 1 knee), on a mid-range scanner, operated by a single technician. However, any profit margin must be very slim at that level.

I'm amazed that the insurers managed to negotiate a discount down to about $80 though. I simply don't see how that would cover costs. Indeed, a radiologist would normally charge around $250 to give a written opinion on the images. To get the cost down to $80, they can't be charging much more than $25 for the report. You have to wonder whether the scan is being e-mailed to Mexico or India for reporting.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: jjsole
Hmmm, I thought it was more like 1k...

depends on what you need. MRI's are expensive but now with walk in MRI's everywhere they have dropped from the 5 figures they once were.

You can look them up in the phone book and call around for what you need.

They can quote you.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Tiamat
lets see, it cost me 500$ for a consulting doctor to see me for 1 minute and tell me he has no clue what was wrong with me. So, for someone to actually do something useful, I am sure it would be at least 10x that price.

I vote for 5k$

WTF you paying $500 for an office visit? Even a specialist shouldn't charge that for just a non-material exam. Did they do a test, take blood. etc.

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: Mark R

Originally posted by: boomerang
What's the charge for the Contrast Agent that they eventually find was really, really bad for you?

Charge for an MRI for enemy combatants - free! For them, the good ol' US taxpayers get the bill.

Well, the most common contrast agents used in MRI are based on gadolinium solutions. There are about a dozen different agents that use Gd with slightly different properties. Prices of the agents vary from about $100 to $600 depending on which one the doc wants to use

None have proven to be particularly dangerous, and they are probably at least as safe as the contrast agents used for CT. However, there has been a very rare, but often fatal disease (nephrogenic systemic fibrosis - NSF) identified which appears to start when some gadolinium agents are used in people with severe kidney failure who require dialysis. Although the manufacturers recommended against the use of the agents by people with severe kidney failure, some docs nevertheless thought that the risk was worth taking because of the extra information available from the scan.

There is still some controversy over the exact cause of NSF. The current theory is that the Gd-contrast agents are large organic-Gd complexes, which are filtered and removed by the kidneys in a few minutes to hours. In kidney failure the agents stay in the body as dialysis can remove them only extremely slowly. While the complex molecules seem to be pretty safe, in time, some contrast agents degrade in the body. In people needing dialysis, the agents can hang around in the blood for weeks (because the dialysis does such a poor job). However, as they agents degrade they release highly toxic unbound gadolinium.

The FDA has now essentially banned use of Gd in people with moderate or severe kidney failure. Despite this, many hospitals are now changing over to Gd contrast agents with different molecular structures that don't degrade, even for people with normal kidneys. Indeed, the manufacturer of the contrast agent with the most stable molecular structure has suddenly found demand for their product surging, and to give them credit, despite the surge it is still priced significantly lower than the more traditional agents.

Thanks for the info. I thought you sounded like you knew what you were talking about. I can tell you do. Just curious, who manufactures the stable contrast agent you write about?

 

[CorCentral]

Here's another take on it.

My wife had three MRI scans done on her head for $7,500.... Yes, this was before we married

She says that if people would stop suing doctors for mistakes that cause no damage or the problem was out of the doctor's hands, all these prices would drop dramatically.

I'm not the one speaking here, as I have'nt been to a doctor in over 25 years so I have no clue on this kind of thing. The closest thing to a doctor I've gotten is a Dentist :laugh: