Fire Sale MRI

[rocketman48097]

So my "consumer driven" plan through work is the very cheapest offered, 2k deductible per person, 4k per family.  I am now stuck with a stress injury in my left foot and after months in the boot, it was suggested I get an MRI to rule out a pinched nerve. 

Instead of just taking the price the insurance company will get me, I called the Radiology Center and asked for a "self pay" rate, which is $455.  The quoted price on the United Health website is $889 at this location.  The lady told me filing through insurance is more expensive than self pay.  Since I am so far from my deductible, I think I will be self paying for this scan.  Years ago, I had my wife max out her health savings account at work (6k per year), so we will be paying for this with "leftover" pre tax dollars.

Just sharing my story in hopes that others will be able to price out their healthcare from a consumer standpoint. 

[footenote]

This would be great for every healthcare consumer to do for every non-emergency healthcare choice - if only there healthcare costs were transparent. In general, they are not.

This has been largely driven by the healthcare providers being forced to spread the costs of caring for those without insurance across the charges of those who do. So the billed costs often has relatively little to do with the actual cost of the service (or drug or whatever). And healthcare providers are generally terrible about disclosing prices.

Having said that, good for you for being a heads-up healthcare consumer when you had the opportunity.