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

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: boomerang
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?

The most stable agent is a gadolinium/tetraazacyclododecanetetraacetic acid complex or Gd-DOTA for short. It is sold by Guerbert (Paris, France) under the brand-name Dotarem.

Dotarem has been widely used in Europe since 1989, but is not authorized for use in the USA.

Other popular agents used world wide are Gd-DTPA (Magnevist, Bayer) - the original MRI contrast agent, introduced in 1981, and Gd-DTPA-BMA (Omniscan, GE healthcare).

Magnevist has been associated with about 10% of cases of NSF, and is one of the most popular agents used (because it has been around the longest). Omniscan has been linked to 50% of cases. Of note, is that omniscan has the 3rd lowest stability of all the agents in general use, while magnevist is somewhere in the middle.

No cases of NSF have been linked to the highly stable agents: Dotarem, ProHance (Bracco diagnostics, Inc) and Gadovist (Bayer).

 

[Kelvrick]

Hmm, lets see. No MRI, but I had a catscan of my head and neck/spine. Ending charge was 900 bucks. There might be more associated with the catscan, but I couldn't tell with all the xray charges and such that added up to like 45k.

 

[bctbct]

I almost had an MRI

Them- Do you have any foreign objects in you're body?

Me- Yes

Them- What?

Me-Two steel plates and 21 screws

Them- Where?

Me- In my ankle

Them- In the ankle that we are suppose to scan?

Me- Yes

Them- What doctor sent you over here??

 

[ebaycj]

Wow, lots of people here who have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how the healthcare provider / insurance comany relationship works.