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Wow MRI's are expensive!

H8R

Cranky Pants
Nov 10, 2004
13,959
35
BigMike said:
I just got the statement from my insurance company, $2,305! Why is everything in medicine so expensive?!
Because insurance will cover it.
 

splat

Nam I am
your was cheap!!!
I just got the BILL! for the ones on my Head and Neck $5,750. IInsurance paid most oit , bit I still owe $268

that was when they were looking to see if I had a Brain Tumor or stroke or annurism ( SP ? ) or SLipped Disc , during what turned out to be lyme Menigitas.

what was your for ?
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
55,976
22,015
Sleazattle
Doctors can make a lot of money but in the end their salaries are only a fraction of what health costs are. I'd guess Insurance and paperwork are a huge part. My local doctors office has just as many administrators as they do doctors.
 

Toshi

butthole powerwashing evangelist
Oct 23, 2001
39,720
8,732
MRI machines cost a couple of million a pop. it also costs a huge amount (a million? more? since tuition is a tiny fraction of the cost of running a med school and teaching hospital) to educate a single radiologist. add it all up, and yes, MRIs are expensive. but when they're needed they're priceless, no?
 
Oct 8, 2005
668
0
Mexico
Toshi said:
MRI machines cost a couple of million a pop. it also costs a huge amount (a million? more? since tuition is a tiny fraction of the cost of running a med school and teaching hospital) to educate a single radiologist. add it all up, and yes, MRIs are expensive. but when they're needed they're priceless, no?
Yeap, most of this people get paid for what they know and not for what the do.
And please be thankful for having insurance, most people in third world countries (as mine) doesn't even have insurance for their cars or life insurance, about 10% of the people in this country has a health insurance.
Just remember to squeeze every single penny you've spent in insurance... when you need to.
 

ALEXIS_DH

Tirelessly Awesome
Jan 30, 2003
6,197
829
Lima, Peru, Peru
i remember when i was in the US.. i had to see a doc almost every week for like 6 months.. and it was a crapload of money on doc fees and pills.... it was crazy insane.

i moved back home, use the very same pills, see a MUCH better doc (john hopkins MD, in a clinic where a thirds of the docs are ivy leaguers) than the crappy docs there were in the little town in alabama for much much much less it was in the US....
 

maxyedor

<b>TOOL PRO</b>
Oct 20, 2005
5,496
3,141
In the bathroom, fighting a battle
No argument with you on that one la cleta, most of my posts are sarcastic anyway, insurance is a life saver, literaly, I got my statement awhile back I had racked up about $2000 in dental $700 in eye doctor and $1500 getting x-rays of stuff that mite have been broken, my copay total abou two fiddy. Not Half Bad
 

BigMike

BrokenbikeMike
Jul 29, 2003
8,931
0
Montgomery county MD
Yes, I am grateful for the insurance, I didn't have to pay for the MRI out of pocket at all. Just a $10 copay for the doctor visit.

I guess its a catch-22 here. Medicine is expensive because we have insurance, but insurance is expensive because Medicine is expensive!

The MRI was for my knee, and it was a little over two months ago. There were some other threads about it, but i'm lazy and don't want to dig them up :) I basically Destroyed my PCL, and have been in PT for it for awhile.

Speaking of things in medicine being expensive because of insurance, I just got fitted for a knee brace, and they run around $400 WITHOUT insurance, and $875 WITH! Explain that one to me?! Just because I have insurance, they are going to charge my insurance company over twice what I would pay out of pocket for the same product?
 

blt2ride

Turbo Monkey
May 25, 2005
2,332
0
Chatsworth
BigMike said:
I just got the statement from my insurance company, $2,305! Why is everything in medicine so expensive?!
It's Corporate America...I wonder how much it would cost in Australia or Canada...
 
i think basically what they do is inflate the price for insurance, and then insurance says they will pay a lower price.....which happens to be what the company charges.....so they make the money and the insurance comany feels happy cause they didint pay the whole amount. i could be completely off base...but yeah
 

laura

DH_Laura
Jul 16, 2002
6,259
15
Glitter Gulch
medicine is so expensive because drug reps spend thousands of dollars a month catering to hospitals and dr.s offices so their drugs are used.
 

OrthoPT

Monkey
Nov 17, 2004
721
0
Denver
Zman said:
i think basically what they do is inflate the price for insurance, and then insurance says they will pay a lower price.....which happens to be what the company charges.....so they make the money and the insurance comany feels happy cause they didint pay the whole amount. i could be completely off base...but yeah
:stupid:
 

splat

Nam I am
laura said:
medicine is so expensive because drug reps spend thousands of dollars a month catering to hospitals and dr.s offices so their drugs are used.
having worked in the this field before. I can tell you the high cost is mainly to Pay for the Huge amount of R&D that goes into developing the technolgy or drug.

the average drug take 25 years to go from the first Idea till it gets to market , and for every drug that get to market there are 10 others that have failed along the way.
 

Toshi

butthole powerwashing evangelist
Oct 23, 2001
39,720
8,732
laura said:
medicine is so expensive because drug reps spend thousands of dollars a month catering to hospitals and dr.s offices so their drugs are used.
while this marketing is a non-negligible cost for sure (speaking of which, where are MY free lunches? :dead: <-- UW pretty much bans the drug company reps), the majority of the cost is in the huge clinical trials needed to get FDA approval.