Why does a CT scan cost so much in the USA?
Published by Vijay October 29th, 2007 in CT, Health Economics, Life in India, Medical blogs, Medicine, Nebulous Views, Other Bloggers, Radiology, UltrasonographyThe subtext of this post is obviously my inability to comprehend the high costs of healthcare in the USA. I am not going to add anything new to the arguments for or against defensive medicine. This debate has been raging in some corner or the other ever since the medical blogosphere came into existence.
What prompted this post was a visit to The Blog That Ate Manhattan late last night and this post in particular.
TBTAM writes…
A young college student presents to the ER with abdominal pain. She gets a CT scan. The CT scan shows an ovarian cyst. Dad, who is an MD, gets the bill for over $8,000, most of which is for the CT. Dad goes on CBS says his daughter should have had an ultrasound because it was cheaper. He says it is because the ER docs were practicing defensive medicine.
What piqued my curiosity was the sentence “Dad, who is an MD, gets the bill for over $8,000, most of which is for the CT. ”
That cannot be right, I thought. Maybe TBTAM made a mistake in the numbers. So I checked the CBS news article that she got the story from and had linked to.
Here is the pertinent extract from the news article (emphases are mine)…
It started as a simple stomach ache, but Alexandra Varipapa, a sophomore at the University of Richmond, decided to go to the emergency room. There, doctors ordered a full CT scan, a radiation imaging test, which found a harmless ovarian cyst. She never questioned the CT scan, CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports.
But her father did - when he got the $8,500 bill, $6,500 of which was that CT scan. “I was pretty flabbergasted,” said Robert Varipapa, himself a physician. Varipapa says his daughter’s pain could have been diagnosed far more easily and cheaply with a $1,400 ultrasound. “A history, a pelvic examination and probably an ultrasound,” he said. And he would have started with the ultrasound.
$6,500 for an abdominal CT scan!!!
Dr. Varipapa had a right to be flabbergasted. After all, he footed the bill.
I am speechless.
Well, almost.
Once I give you the reasons, I am sure most of you will be dumbfounded too.
They probably did a plain CT scan of the whole Abdomen on a multislice CT scanner (aka multidetector row CT / MDCT) as that is the usual emergency protocol for acute abdominal pain. This is usually adequate to diagnose appendicitis and to rule out the usual mimics of appendicitis (here is a good online article with lots of pictures).
A complete contrast CT scan (with oral or rectal contrast and intravenous contrast) would give more information, but this is unlikely to be done in an emergency.
A basic MDCT scanner (6 or 8 detector rows) costs about 2 to 2.5 crore rupees here in India (INR 20 to 25 million = US $ 500,000 to 630,000). I learnt from a source in the industry that the cost of the scanner is about 40% subsidized for the Indian market (compared to its cost in the North American & European markets). So the same basic multislice CT scanner would cost about $ 900,000 in the US.
We have a basic four-slice MDCT scanner in our hospital. A patient would be charged Rs. 3500 ($ 90, yes ninety dollars) for a plain CT scan or Rs. 4500 ($ 115) for a contrast CT scan of the whole abdomen. Ours is a small city. The charges are likely to be as high as Rs. 8000 or Rs. 9000 ($ 200 to 230) in the bigger metros like Chennai, Mumbai or Delhi.
An ultrasound scan of the whole abdomen is usually done by the radiologist (me) or another doctor who has a good deal of experience in ultrasonography. We do not have sonography technicians here in India. We have a fairly decent basic colour Doppler scanner which is more than sufficient for routine work. An abdomen scan at my department costs Rs. 350 (about $ 9 - yes nine dollars). We most often do not charge anything extra for an abdomen scan that goes on to become a transvaginal scan - as it would in case it turns out to be something like an ovarian cyst. So the lady gets two scans for the price of one.
The costs quoted in the CBS news article are ginormous. It reminds of the $456 Billion Meme that I did a few months ago.
Here’s a quick break-up…..
With the $ 6500 that was charged for one CT abdomen; I could do a contrast CT of the abdomen for fifty-six patients or a plain CT scan of the abdomen for seventy-three patients here in my radiology department in Salem.
With the $ 1400 that would have been charged for an ultrasound scan of the abdomen (if it had been done); I could do ultrasound scans of the abdomen for one hundred and fifty seven patients in my department.
Or think of it this way…
The CT scan is worth as much as six MacBooks or twenty iPod Touchs. Steve Jobs would probably have a fit if he saw this.
I do not understand the numbers. We pay just 40% less than the Americans for the same equipment. But we charge peanuts compared to their charges.
The argument that the quality of work is better in the US to justify the high costs would not apply to radiology. The technology and knowledge gap between radiology-as-practiced in the US and radiology-as-practiced in India isn’t all that wide.
I cannot imagine how these kind of costs can be justified.
Coming back to TBTAM’s post, there were some interesting comments. I agree completely with this one by geez…
I’m actually shocked, not living in the USA, that a ultra-sound in a hospital costs 1400$. Even given the US machine you can get for 100K, and assuming you use it on one patient a day (surely I’ve given us at least an 100x factor here), surely you’re paying the doctor or her boss at least 500$ too much for these 15 minutes. Am I missing something?
But I think the best comment was from Edwin Leap, MD, FACEP. He ends with….
Anyway, I sympathize with all parties. As a dad, I want reasonable, cost-efficient care for my children. As a doc, seeing lots of people very fast, sometimes the test that rules out the worst things fastest is the way to go. And though I’m not a surgeon, I understand that in a litigation-prone world, more information is always better than less.
It seems we want everything done, nothing missed, and all of it at a discount. Welcome to reality!
He had mentioned his “latest blog post on why that CT cost $8000, or something ridiculous like that, and what we should do with that bill.” I tried to get to his blog but the link on his name took me to a Blogger ‘profile not available’ page. Google to the rescue and I found his blog and the post in question, which was basically about his son’s appendicitis and surgery.
Thought provoking post, even for someone like me who has minimal knowledge of the way the US healthcare system works.
Now is the time for me to do some ‘holier-than-thou’ preaching.
Indians who read this, medical professionals or laypeople, should be thankful for the fact that in any reasonably good radiology setup in India, one gets scans of first-world quality at third-world prices.
Update (November 17, 2007):
Found this excellent post by Aggravated DocSurg through GruntDoc. Not pertinent to the cost of CT scans in the US, but a very good explanation of the utility (or lack thereof) of CT scan in the diagnosis of Appendicitis.
137 Responses to “Why does a CT scan cost so much in the USA?”
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The cost of healthcare in the US is staggering. When I read this post I felt nauseated. It makes me afraid for where things are headed - since they very seldom change for the better.
Really good work, Vijay. Excellent post.
Vijay,
US healthcare economics are part of another planet. A few years ago, a friend told me a radiologist who puts in a catheter into the middle cerebral artery for infusing TPA for acute strokes gets paid $10,000!
I couldn’t believe it! Similarly, surgeries also cost more there than in India. However, their good days are also over, with major cuts in pay for procedures, and insurance hassles reducing take home checks.
Very good post, thanks!
I guess part of the problem is that in the ER in the USA it seems that not many of the patients are actually paying because the ER is not allowed to turn anyone away by law. So the hospital has to charge the paying customer excessively to make up the cost of all the free ones.
Of course in Canada there would be no charge because of our medical care system but then we don’t have so many machines so often you have to wait. I think you would find here that many people do not get a CT scan when they would for the same thing in the USA.
Very interesting post Vijay and good for everyone to realize this.
Excellent post Vijay. Good detailed one.
Yes, I totally agree with you. The cost of any medical treatment/check up is very high not only in USA but in other countries of Europe as well.
When I was in Switzerland, I once developed an eyesore..something like red swollen eyes. Not a serious one.
Now had I been in India, depending on the availability of time & seriousness, I could have either gone to any chemist for a bottle of eye drops (they usually know what to give), or would have visited an eye specialist and the total cost of the treatment would not have been more than Rs 500/-.
There I spent $95, only for the check up & a prescription w/o which I couldn’t have bought medicine.
i feel proud that we are in a place where medical expense is affordable. Feel sad that still many people cannot afford it. What will happen if any of us get struck in one of these developed countries with a stroke or infarction without an insurance. Hearing the cost alone will send us straight to heaven. Of course you need not worry about your will and estate since all those would have been paid-up for your initial investigations.
Good post Vijay. Especially, the cost of machines, the subsidy and comparision to ipod.
Interesting post.
Allow me to clarify a few things. $6500 is the charge for a CT scan, but I’m sure it is nowhere near what the hospital has contracted to accept for this service from the insurance companies it contracts with. In most cases, it will receive somewhere between 300-600 dollars, I suspect.
Unless the patient has no insurance, in which case they are stuck paying the full charges.
The particular hospital in the CBS story has ridiculous charges, and I don’t think these charges are reflective of what most hospitals charge, and certainly not what they receive.
Unfortunately, CBS got the story wrong. It is the story of bad ER care at an overpriced private hospital, not a story that represents US healthcare in general. (At least in my humble opinion)
tbtam: Thanks for the clarification. Which has me more confused - nothing new there as it is the usual case when I start thinking of economics
I don’t understand how the hospital can charge more than what it has contracted to accept for a service. Edwin Leap’s post tried to explain the disparity between the actual cost of a service and the amount received from a patient and how it is justified.
Moof: It’s beginning to look like this is the same path that the private-sector healthcare in India, which is increasingly being paid for by insurance is headed in India. I agree that it is nauseating and scary.
Rambodoc: I’m surprised to see you commenting on a healthcare related post while you are on holiday. Is it raining in Bali?!
I agree that it looks like the ‘good days’ are over.
JMB: It is not fair to charge the paying customer (or his insurer) more just because you are bound by law to give the same standard of care to the non-paying customer. The government should foot that bill. Take some of that $700 million per day that is being spent on a useless war and spend it on giving good healthcare to people.
Cuckoo: I agree with what you say about the cost of treatment in the west, but I have to disagree with you on one point. It is totally wrong and illegal for a chemist/pharmacist to give any non-OTC drug to someone without a valid prescription. I’m not too sure if you realize that is wrong. That speaks volumes about the ethics of medical practice here in India.
ST Doc: The one time that I visited the US, the first thing that my doctor friends advised me was to be sure to take a short term health insurance / accident policy. You should spend a few days in my department to really see how many people cannot afford even $9 for an ultrasound scan because the entire family’s monthly income is less than $100. And the newspapers rejoice at Mukesh Ambani beating Carlos Slim to be the world’s richest man.
Yes, I am fully aware that this practice is wrong. And that is why I said depending on the availability of time & seriousness, I could have either gone to any chemist for a bottle of eye drops (they usually know what to give), or would have visited an eye specialist.
But tell me, how many of us go to a doctor for general fever or cough & cold ? We directly head for the chemist shop who gives us the appropriate medicine. I have even seen people buying Espazine plus without any prescription !
Wrong or right is another thing to debate on. 
So, don’t disagree with me, rather agree to the fact that it happens right here.
Warning: This comment is tangential to the post.
What is “quality of medical care”? I have had emergency treatment in the US after a lab-accident. The response was quick and efficient, no doubt, and I was in the hospital in six minutes flat, but the doctors who did the treatment (removing gazillion glass pieces from my upper body) did it mechanically like I was a machine that had broken down and they were mechanics fixing it, all the while discussing the party they had attended the previous day. My emergency C-section in India, however was different with everybody, from the ob-gyn to the nurse actually being very supportive and well, comforting.
Have you seen the movie “Patch Adams”? It portrays very nicely the ills of medical treatment in the US.
Came here from Jmb’s site and would like to leave a small comment.
Because the USA is a capitalist country I believe the medical system there is treated like any other business - the bottom line being the almighty buck with the most expensive but thorough equipment used and everything accomplished in a very correct though cool and aloof manner.
Here in Canada the atmosphere is much warmer and caring for the patient with the downside being longer waits for the less common and more expensive equipment.
Perhaps a combination of these systems would lead to the most benefit for both the patient and the medical system in both countries.
I wanted to shared my experience since it pertains to the cost as well as procedure of diagnosis in the US. I am a healthy 27 year old and presented myself to the ER with fairly severe lower abdominal pain, just like the college student mentioned in the post above. I was not even seen by a doctor until I demanded that I wanted a consult with the attending physician. I was checked by a Physician’s Assistant, a urine test was done to rule out bladder infection and pregnancy and then the Physician’s Assistant walked in with an IV and a firm recommendation for a blood test followed by a 3-way contrast CT scan. She palpated my abdomen and despite the fact that I did not present any of the symptoms of appendicitis, i.e. no nausea, vomiting or right quadrant pain she said the only way to rule out appendicitis was to give me an IV, oral and rectal contrast for a full body CT scan. I was shocked at this aggressive line of diagnosis. At that point I asked her if we could do the blood test first and then wait to see if I had elevated WBC count and then perhaps do the CT scan. She said the blood test would not be conclusive so it would be meaningless to rule out the CT scan based on the blood work report. At that point I asked to see the attending physician in the ER. I told him that I wanted some painkillers and would like to wait it out before I allowed such invasive procedures. He was much more reasonable and said that it would be fine and if my symptoms worsened then I could return to the ER for the three-way contrast CT Scan. I went home and decided to wait it out and it turns out that was a good decision! I saw your web page when I was googling to get more information about the 3 way CT scan. Just like the girl in the report I was not even offered the option of a sonogram and there was no complete medical history taken for instance I wasn’t asked what I had eaten that morning or if I had engaged in physically strenuous exercise or anything else. I am really appalled at the state of the health care industry in the states. I think we have a far better system in India where they don’t try to “bomb” you into a diagnosis!
Me eyeballs stright hit the monitor and came back. 6500 dollars? Here we charge 175 for a USS and 750 for a plain CT. And BPL patients pay half (or none, I’m nt sure which). This is for our hospotal, scan centres charge a little more. But I’m betting it’s not even 6500 rupees.
Under the arrangements proposed for the British National Health Service (NHS),
radiology departments will be reimbursed for examinations carried out on NHS patients according to a “tariff”.
The tariff for a CT scan ranges from £103 to £218.
The tariff for an ultrasound scan is £62-£92.
This seems like quite a good deal for the public, considering that the UK is quite an expensive country.
Ref:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=150476&Rendition=Web
Something has to be done about cattle-call medical care and greedy insurance companies in the USA. Hopefully, the next president will have more power over the insurance companies.
Vijay: I have an abd. CT pending, and I shopped around for prices here in Mexico. In the US, the idea of “shopping around” as a cash-pay patient is already a near-impossibility. The crazy-ridiculous prices are compounded by the fact that you can’t even find out what simple procedures will cost beforehand because, being a capitalist business, medical providers don’t want to “tip their hand” to an anonymous phone caller asking about prices.
To give a reference point for this country in its 2nd largest city in a private hospital with near-US-quality of equipment, care, etc., I can get a complete abdominal CT w/contrast for $450-500USD without difficulty. I could go cheaper, but given what I’d know of the rest of the facilities, I’d be worrying about the quality of the equipment and how that would ultimately reflect on the imaging quality.
To Susana above: the next president, regardless of party, has no power over insurance companies–you should know that. Congress provides laws constraining the insurance industry and their wheels are so well greased, if you took away insurance lobbyists today, it’d still be a decade before the stench of their influence leaves DC.
As JMB says, healthcare is “free” in Canada (not really though, we pay incredibly high taxes), nevertheless CT scans are not done routinely. I just had an abdominal ultra sound for suspected gallbladder and when I asked why no CT scan I was told “too expensive”. On the other hand, I am getting an echo doplar for my heart relatively quickly, just a one week wait. In Greece my mother in law got a CT scan within an hour of getting to hospital for suspected stroke. My mother didn’t get one for 10 days by which point it was too late. I waited 3 years for a hip replacement and I’m now on a waiting list for the other one. Maybe I’ll come to India and have it done, I hear there are excellent surgeons there…ciao
The cost of 1400 for the US is easily explained:
reimbursement from Medicare is about 20 %, that makes 280 dollars.
That’s all you need to know about it.
Interstingly, in case you are NOT insured you will feel the heat of this system, YOU WILL BE CHARGED 1400.;
after that, you go to the hospital and say, ok, I give you cash, but I can give you 20 % only.
The hospital will accept, because they do not want you to pay 10/months over 30 years to balance your bill.
I am an international student in FL. I went to ER for severe back pain last November and ended up having X-Rays, blood tests and CT scan. They charged me $8000 and claim is still in process by insurance company. But I am pretty sure they are not gonna pay it.
I am now extremely worried how it is gonna be.
CT scans do not cost $6500…so I am not sure where this information came from. We typically get paid between $250 and $500 for our CT scans and the vast majority are paid for by insurance companies we are contracted with. Either the information is grossly exaggerated or it does not reflect the typical imaging center in the US.
People who never did a CT in USA can not have an idea about the excessive cost in this service. Last 23, I went to emergency room with abdominal pain. I told to paramedic about going to Harbor Medical Center in Torrance, CA. because is the emergency room than I know and is close to my house. They decided go to other hospital .
I was there for 3 hours, the doctor order a radiography, I though this was perfect but I saw a diferent machine, WOW, so diferent to a common x ray machine. they diagnose on me Kidney stones, and the doctor send me with a letter to a county Hospital for treatment, exactly the harbor UCLA, I went there to an emergency room, doctor detected a stomach infection, and he gave me pills, I got better and when I call to know my bill in the first hospital, was 7,992.00 dollars, now I’m suffering because I don;t have health insurance, I don;t have the money to pay that bill, and I have to add 640.00 for ambulance service. I’m absolutly agree about you are saying. Consumer affair, but I’m need someone who can help me to find a place to complain about excessive cost in this case.
I don’t know what hospitals you’re going to, but when I had, to what was thought to be, a cerebrial anyerism, turned out to be vertigo, the doctor ordered a CT scan, I was in and out in less then 30 mins. The Bill invoice $830.00. Now this is in Salem, Oregon. The machine was a state of the art, Phillips, 3D type of contraption, the hospital paid over $670,000 (USD) for it, it was published in our local paper. I have no idea why your’s was so high.
I had a single CT Scan performed in Dec. ‘07 in Austin Texas (Seton Medical Center) and the costs (in $US) were as follows:
CT ABD WO CONT $3,712.00
CT PELVIS LTD WO $3,368.75
CT 3D RNDR WO PSTPRC $112.50
Total Cost: $7,193.25
The ‘two’ CT scan costs were for a single image, however because the image covered both the pelvis *and* the abdomen the hospital felt justified in charging *twice* for the same image.
Also, this was the *actual* amount paid by my insurance company (with a large deductible by me) - not some type of marked-up and then discounted amount. Anyone who says that this is not a customary and usual charge ($6,000 ) and amount actually paid for a CT scan has obviously not been in a hospital in the United States in a long, long time….
I went to the emergency room with abdominal pain in Jan.2008 in Tucson,AZ St.Josephs/Carondelet Hospital. The doctor ordered a CT scan and this was done in the radiology lab, a short while later they came in and said they needed to re do it either because it wasn’t clear or the doctor or radiologist couldn’t see something they wanted to see.
Back to radiology for a second go. I got the bill today and it is as follows
CONTRST NON-ION 350MG PR 787.50
CT ABDO W/CON 1328.25
CT PELVIS W/CON 1328.25
Radiology Sevices 432.00
This comes up to $3876.00 for the the CT scan which doesn’t include any of the other ER charges or professional services (doctor bill from ER) which was about another $1500.00.
The whole thing was inconclusive and the total bill was close to $5500.00. I am uninsured and trying to figure out how I’m going to pay this. At least I now know what was the most expensive drink I’ve ever had. I couldn’t believe the contrast was almost eight hundred dollars.
My daughter received a CT scan at Seton Northwest in Austin, Texas and the charges were:
CT ABD W CONT $4057.25
CT PELVIS LTD W $3765.50
(why add $.25 and $.50?)
The total cost for her several hour stay at Seton Northwest Emergency:
$10,605.75
My insurance is a high deductible plan. They paid $3,632.55. The hospital reduced the charge in accordance with their negotiated rates with this particular insurance company in the amount of $1590.87, leaving me to pay $5,382.33 for the several hours in the emergency room. (She had unexplained abdominal pain which was later determined to be psychosomatic–after 4 days in the Children’s hospital and many more tests). A doctor (of Indian descent, coincidentally) finally gave it to us straight–there’s nothing wrong with your daughter. She was under a lot of stress at school (at only 9 years old). The immediate move toward aggressive measures was wrong, and insensitive. It created a hysteria that probably exacerbated the problem. My daughter was given Ativan to “calm” her at one point during her hospital stay, and she had a terrible reaction that was difficult to watch as a parent. I was not impressed with the complete absence of a holistic (whole-person/situation) approach. Of course the concern was that it might be appendicitis at first, but there were no other indications, and apparently psychosomatic abdominal pain is not uncommon in 9 year old girls.
I agree the health care delivery system in the U.S. is broken, and it’s not because we are litigious. Medical Malpractice law in Texas is now virtually non-existent due to reforms that have nearly wiped out the right to recover for the deserving cases as well as the undeserving. Plus, studies have shown that costs of litigation are miniscule in the health care system. In our culture, we do strive toward getting everything perfect, and that sometimes creates more problems than it solves, but I honestly don’t think that it is what drives costs so high–I have some thoughts on it, but I really don’t know.
I feel like I’m drowning in medical bills. I went to the emergency room last week May/08 in Florida after having an unexplained seizure. (still unexplained) I was kept over night for observation and released the next evening. The bills are crazy! Pharmacy $450. Laboratory $6022.60….. ct scan $2,395.05 and they did an MRI too!! that’s another $3,151.05. WHY BOTH? I’m unemployeed and uninsured. The hopital bill alone is $16,091.04 Then I’m getting bills from outside labs for $1,000. that did drug tests and platelet count and urinalysis….i don’t know how this is different from the laboratory fees I’m being charged in the hospital bills. Then I’m getting two other bills from a different diagnostic center that says it’s the fee for the physician that interpreted the ct scan and the mri for another $600.00
I fully believe the cost of the CT scan here. My dad had lymphoma about five years ago, and routinely had CT scans (and still does) that cost about $5000. After all was said and done, through chemo and a bone marrow transplant, the cost of his care was close to $400,000. If he didn’t have insurance, he would be dead. That’s disgusting.
Emergency rooms can’t turn you away - but they don’t necessarily have to do anything about your condition, either. When I was uninsured and needed my gall bladder removed, they wouldn’t even perform the ultrasound to confirm it unless I could pay for it (which I couldn’t). I was told many times to “come back with health insurance.” The entire experience of needing a procedure done without health insurance and living under the poverty level was a harrowing one and has certainly made me aware of much needed reforms to our health care industry.
The bottom line: US health care is privatized and insurance companies are for-profit organizations, including those that are classified by the IRS as NPO’s. (non-profit).
The administrative cost of health care i nthe US is about 40% of the billed amount.
Most health care insurance providers bill an amount that is roughly double of what they expect to actually get paid.
The biggest secret in health care billing is that when you get billed 4,000 for some procedure and pay only 2.000 you may just get away with it. you have to keep proving somehow that yo ucant afford to pay it all.
if Hillary Clinton’s single-payer system would actually be implemented, 30% of those 40% of admin. costs would evaporate. it would also make the business of health care provision essentially unprofitable. This is why it will never go through congress no matter who is president.
I expect a dramatic shift in how US health care is maanged starting in 2015-2020 due to the extremely high percentage of US population in retirement age at that time. the cost-structure will spiral completely out of control, and serious changes will have to occur.
The end effect will be that US doctors will be paid substantially less than they are now, which will attract less talent into the universities, less money spent in research, and an increase in over-thr-counter drug use in lieu of professinoal treatment.
The winners are pharmaceutical companies with existing patents. The losers are health insurance companies, hospitals, and ultimately the sick patients.
Wow, this is a fascinating article. I live in Australia, and a cost for a CT is about $300 out of pocket, about half of which we can claim back from the government. My husband went to a private hospital a while ago with renal colic and got a renal protocol scan, which is a little less detailed, I suspect. He spent the day in ED, and our complete bill (not subsidised by the government) was about $500. Provision of information is universal, but healthcare costing is not.
We have fairly clear rules about when you can do which test, as the government won’t subsidise anything. However, radiology clinics make a nice side business out of offering “whole body scans” for those who are willing to pay out of pocket. I can’t believe people would participate in that if the scans were $6500.
In around 2002 in Asheville, North Carolina I called “911″ and wanted to ask to just talk to a counsellor as I had no phonebook and theyt asked if I was ok and as soon as I finished talking with the 911 person I felt better and she asked if I still wanted the ER car to come pick me up and I said no thanks, I’m fine now. Yet the ER Ambulance came anyway and forced me to lie down on their “bed” and they carried me to the car even if I could walk by myself and I was asking if they just leavem but they talked me into this smooth procedure at the hospital etc. Being from Europe I assumed the medical care was free in USA (dummy!) and so I went to the hospital in Asheville, NC where they kept me for 4 hours, doing a CAT Scan etc. etc. even if all I had was some kind of panic attack! Then they let me go, but I said how am I going to get back home for a 20 mile drive!? They assumed I have friends or relatives to pick me up, but I had no one. I didn’t even have a chance to grab a coat, a jacket, let alone shoes! Let alone take a quick shower! So there I was in winter barefoot with house slippers with a t-shirt walking around hospital trying to get a ride home and they let me use their phone to call a taxi cab, which charged $55 and arrived in about 1 hour late. OK, I was back home, all “saliced up” by cat scan and calm like a stone, no more panic attack, especially when later I received an almost $4000 bill from that hpospital. I think cat scan was about $1800, the one-way “ride” was $800, etc. Which made my mouth paralysed for a few hours… Later I found out they charge so much to compensate all others who never pay… Wow, that was a huge bill to pay almost $4000, but now you’re saing $6500 for a cat scan alone!!?? I though $1800 for a cat scan was a rip-off! I expected figures in the hundreds and I thought the most will be free except perhaps some small charges like $150 which was also a lot for me having a salary of only $1100 a month.
Please tell me where is the best mildest climate in India. I’m moving to India right away!
Hello, I am a CT Tech in Illinois, USA. Our hospital has a 64 slice GE scanner that cost 2 million
dollars for the entire system. This was the state-of-the-art system when purchased about 3 years ago.
I recently saw on a patients estimate of charges that for an abdpel scan without contrast to r/o kidney
stone the cost would be $6700. This floored me I had no idea they were charging that much for a scan(I
should ask for a raise). Also there are charges for the radiologists interpretation of the scan and those
docs get PAID, but the also pay between $50,000-$80,000 for malpractice insurance annually. Thanks
Thanks Russ,
We’re planning an upgrade to a Siemens 128 slice scanner which costs about US $ 1.5 million even at the subsidized rates for India. I guess we’ll charge about US $ 200 - 250 (two hundred & fifty) for a coronary CTA and increase our other scan costs by about 10 - 15%. Still peanuts compared to US rates.
As I wrote in my post, I pay peanuts for malpractice liability insurance, which is almost non-existent here in India. So I guess I won’t be getting a raise
I grew up and lived in Lithuania. One of the best doctors in the world, even if corrupted. They did wonders with little equipment. I stayed in a hospital for 3 weeks and the “bill” was…. no bill. Free. Not a very modern hospital in 1980s, but it was great for me. Dentists were horrible though. USA is good for rich people and young people. Everyone else should move to Europe. In fact, USA is going to become a communist country soon, so don’t move to Europe yet.
My daughter was in the hospital for two day with high fever and stomach pain and they did two CT scan for the abdomen I got the bill and just for the CT scan was $22,949 my insurance covered $16,000, but I just want to know if the amount of money could be wrong?
A well written post that was ultra informative. Thank you!
Husband has to go in ONCE A YEAR for a CT scan and apparently because of his B-Disection they do not one, not two, but THREE scans!
Current cost as of October 2008 is:
$2,103 $1,766 $1,913 (also $114 $12.36 for “incidentals)
TOTAL = $5,908.36 (Barnes Jewish Hospital)
Insurance negotiated price = $3,456.40 (Aetna)
Our 20% deductible = $792.98 (Note: We pay bi-monthly through work @ a well known pharm & medical device company)
At these prices, one wonders if it may be cheaper to go to India on a vacation and have them done. I LOVE curry!
I believe the $792.98 is the real actual cost and anything above it what insurance company pays is a rip off and a waste.
CT scans to me are like x-rays for dental - perhaps a good tool for a bad doctor.
yeah but dental x-rays are not expensive
Thanks for the comments and additional info Bea, Ann & John.
I didn’t realize you were tracking the comments on this old post, else I would have replied earlier. When I saw US $ 22,949 as the cost of two CT scans, my jaw dropped (again!). I said on twitter to my friends that it would be a major portion of my annual earnings as a radiologist in India!!
I think John is right in his assessment of the true cost of the scan. I agree that most hospitals try to overbill insurance companies. I wonder how much they would charge an uninsured but affordable patient?
Ann: You could definitely do a family trip to India and get a scan done. Like I said, the quality difference is minimal. The cost difference is humongous. I would even give you a substantial discount from the actual US $ 100 charge for a CT abdomen if you chose to come to my hospital
I don’t agree that CT scans are a good tool for a bad doctor. It’s more like a great tool for covering one’s ass in the currently prevalent defensive medicine practice.
yeah I think it will be kind of cool to go to India, but in the meantime I have to find out about the real cost of the CT scan, I think they made a mistake
After my investigations, I found a local group “Metro Imaging” who can do CT scans for a FRACTION of the costs of local hospitals AND they do the “readings” inclusively (no extra bill from an out-side doctor).
So instead of the Insurance Company receiving a bill of $6,779.36 the new bill would be:
$1,618.00 - how about that!
However, if you are currently hospitalized, I’m sure this is not an option to go outside for a test. But, in our case where a 3-part CT scan is required annually - this will save us hundreds of dollars (Insurance company saves thousands).
Interesting! I was having some pretty bad pain in my side/abdomen after a bout with a UTI. I don’t have a PCP yet and nobody would see me for weeks as a new patient. I went to a “minor care clinic” located in a hospital through the ER dept. I had blood tests, urinalysis, an IV, and a CT scan. Total cost for a few hours in the “minor care clinic”? $8500!! The CT scan alone was over $5000. I was also charged for an ER visit - although I was under the impression I was not visiting the ER but a separate clinic for less serious conditions.
It’s being submitted to the insurance company - let’s see how much they actually pay. I’m still expecting another bill from the ER physicians.
Being a Canadian who recently moved to the US, I’m learning some hard lessons about the health care system here.
Ri-Di-Q-Lous Rip-Off.
My husband had a cat scan in August (just on the head and neck0 no contrast. This took place after laying in the ER room for 10 hours in Lehigh Acres Florida and seeing a doctor for not even 5 minutes after complaining to the nurses (when I could go out and find them, as they NEVER came in the room without me going to get them) they charged our insurance $7200.00!!! I sent emails complaining that this was gross over charge! I have asked for itemized bill and they told me over the phone, that cat scans were expensive…. because of the POOR treatment at this ER, I took my husband to an excellent ER in which he was x-rayed from head to toe and received extensive medical care from the doctor there and the bill was less than half of what was being billed by the other hospital.
Highway robbery! I am still protesting the bill from this other “healthcare” (chokes and coughs as I even say the word Health care) I think we should all question the costs that is being billed (overcharged) whether or not we have insurance to pay for it.
I have checked other hospitals and the costs is $900.00 - $1200.00 for the type of cat scan that was done.
Deonna
Thanks god US economy is adjusting to get rid of all the rip-off and inefficient greedy businesses. Soon we will be paying ~$200 for a cat scan and $20 for a doctor’s visit (that’s uninsured, cash payment). You’ll see!
The way doctors in the U.S. treat their patients is like cattle on a conveyor. Stamp! Next! Sick? Try this! Next! Have A “Nice” Day! Once I had a female “doctor” at a family practice come to see me in her outdoor coat. She told me she was in a hurry to leave for Chicago. Most of the time she talked about her trip to Chicago. She seemed interested in me, I guess. After I gave blood for cholesterol test at that same family doctor place I had to submit a chargeback, since they did not process it, they probably “misplaced it”… That’s $70 lost. Then after a chargeback they called me and told me my cholesterol was fine at 110. That’s a lie, ’cause I checked the next day at another doctor and it was 230. That’s in Hendersonville, NC. The chargeback never realized, because they “told” me my “result” by phone after they received a chargeback notice! I felt so defrauded.
Another horror story. Doctor’s office took my blood and urine and held it for too long and spoiled it. Then they made police come to my house and tell me I had a deadly condition! I rushed myself to an ER where I spent 2 hours where they told me it all was a mistake! Yet they still charged me $500 cash for that in the ER! Then the “doctor” also charged me nearly $400!!
Another story: at an URGENT CARE clinic medicine was prescribed to me at 50% the required. To get the other 50% the doctor told me go give urine and blood. I waited 2 hours, no one took care of me. I left. Actually that was for my blood test. My urine was taken, but when I called they said they misplaced it….. The above two cases were in South Carolina.
Also I went to a dentist (Asheville, NC) where I saw blood and dirt all over the place wherever people touched with their hands, very unsanitary. The dentist treating my teeth was drunk!
Now I’m terrified to go to any hospital or any doctor’s office!
“GoodLife”
You willing to wait in line for toilet paper too???
OMG! May as well raise the red flag that we so desperately fought against way back when!
Get rid of the nonsense medical law-suits, along with 1/2 of the worthless attorneys, and don’t even get me started on UNIONS…. unless you work in a coal mine - what’s the point?
America is capitalistic - always has been - don’t like it - MOVE!
Get rid of the lazy attorneys! I paid some attorneys, they didn’t do the job right on one case; paid another one almost 2 months ago yet he’s still finding excuses not to begin my working on case! Should I be patent with him?
I paid the cost of CT scan here in Lafayette,LA,USA (Lady of the Lord hospital) is $5600, $1050 for the cost for the specialist technician to interpret CT scan to the doctor, and the bill to the doctor is 1 grand . There after the answer is nothing wrong with my health . I feel ripe off
My mom went to a urologist in Mexico who had her get a CT Scan with contrast of her abdominal/pelvic area. The scan was US$390, and the two consults with the doctor were US$40 each. Medications were free.
All this would have cost at least three times as much in the USA.
In South Carolina at some places you pay $55 for repeat doctor’s visit. Mexico is not a good savings, although som,e savings, but is it worth driving there to save just 30%. Perhaps cat scan is quite a savings, but does on ereally need it, then how reliable are the results? In USA very often they take urine or blood and forget to test it, throw away, or hold it for too long, then they charge you anyway and call you to come again and give urine and blood again and pay again… USA is really a first world country do you think?
My recent CAT scan cost $17,000, and a 1/2 mile ambulance ride cost $900 - but that’s just me, and I’m in California, where apparently anything goes. Why would/should it cost this much?
$17000 is definitely a scam, a rip-off. Most “western democrazies” are usually rip-off societies, where “you pay for what you get” yet “you don’t get what you pay for”. Greed rules the world, yet world does not manage the greed. What a shame.
Bolina - you need to check into the cost! (see below)
TOTAL = $5,908.36 (Barnes Jewish Hospital)
Insurance negotiated price = $3,456.40 (Aetna)
This was for THREE scans. If you read the comments you should have seen this as well as what others have paid for one. Also, I provided information regarding other imaging groups but those can only be used as an out-patient service - if you are in the hospital - you are stuck with their prices but everything is “negotiable”.
Larry, I’d be interested in hearing how you think the world could/should manage the greed? Look at how ‘greed’ has affected all those investors recently - greed was their downfall during our economic hard times. Still don’t know whether to hug or smack you Larry. Again, America has always been a capitalistic society. As far as Canadian medicine vs. American - only one reality - father in-law passed away waiting for equipment to rotate from one hospital to another - yes - you have to WAIT for those scans there and wait and wait and wait - and after you reach a certain age (he was 70) they wash their hands of you! So much for respecting your elders, eh?
It’s disgusting when healthcare is made a bargaining deal, as if it was a business. Healthcare should not be a business.
Ann - that happened where? In USA or Canada? Either of the two are capitalist countries. There are free markewt socially oriented countries that have excellent healthcare (Europe: Denmark, Sweden, France, some East European countries as well) where you get treated with quality care and ewither free or at a very low cost, yet you must pay high income taxes.
It is not a system, but a culture where they either dump you or respect you. In te country where I grew up they respect the elderly very much. Some societies consider if you’re old, you’re done and you should give way to the young. Yet even in countries where healtcare is cheap or frrewe they have alternative private hospitals and clinics. Does USA have alternative free medical care? Well, it does, in some way, if one does not pay their medical bill, they won’t kill you for that, but if it is large enough they may come after you. I haven’t studied other healt care systems, but I’ve heard that France has the most advanced and the least expensive medical health care system. Not sure about the least costly though. Can someone advise us?
P.S. I’m not the Larry the 666 guy.
My son lost his job in California ~3 weeks ago, just came back to Alabama and had an abdominal CAT scan done (for complications from food poisoning in California) which cost $6,000 . Of course he has no job and no insurance at this time. Not only that, but because he is a white male, he does not qualify for any sort of financial assistance from the hospital, according to their financial aid representative.
Health care in America is atrociously expensive and I fear will become worse in the very near future.
America - the greatest pyramid scheme ever..
Ann: typical American answer: “don’t like it - MOVE!” What does capitalism has to do with a rip-off? Oh… I guess it does, yet 99% of the world is capitalist today. So would you like to move me instead me moving myself? You did it to the Cherokee, you can do it to me as well.
I recently started working for a Medical Imaging facility in the western United States and my eyes opened to another side of this story. The cost of providing health care in the U.S. is high, therefore the cost of health care is high. The side of the story not being told here is the $200,000.00 to $300,000.00 a year maintenance and service agreement that has to be paid each year, you have to pay a technologist to run the machine, people to schedule patients, people to manage patient records, people to manage the technology that transmits and stores images. To give you an idea of other costs involved, a set of 5 MegaPixel diagnostic grayscale Monitors with a graphics card to run them costs $20,000.00. The 5 MP monitors are used in Mammography and are a requirement by governing agencies. A mamography raeding station can run an easy $50,000.00 ( I know mammography is off the subject but I just recently saw these prices) A regular Radiology reading station can run $20,000.00 to $30,000.00. The systems that manage patient info and images cost about $250,000.00 and we pay maintence of about $30,000.00 per year and storage fees of about $60,000.00 per year. Don’t for get you still have utilities, rent/mortgage, etc. On the other hand I will not deny that doctors make a comfortable living, but maybe the fight against health care costs should start at the cost of equipment. I have heard stories from people in Canada about their health care, ” I am sorry Mrs. Joes you have Cancer, and you have 6 Months to live.” ” Good news is we can start your chemotherapy in 9 months.” Yes, a hybrid of the two systems might be nice but how do you do that? Increase available equipment and trained technologists, but guess what?, that costs money, so who absorbs the extra cost? Either the patient via a bill, or everyone through taxes, which brings me to another point, I doubt your healthcare is really free, even if the government pays for it, you pay taxes to the government so they can pay your healthcare. Also our most exlpensive Ultrasound is about $595.00 and that is an Ultrasound Guided breast biopsy. Most of our US exams run in the $200.00 and $300.00 range. We do not have CT right now, but my understanding is that they run about $1,000.00 without contrast and about $2000.00 with contrast. Understand that in a contrast study you do all of you images without contrast and then repeat them with the contrast. My wife had an abd. CT done about 4 years ago and it cost $900.00. I am not surewhere these high costs are coming from, unless it is that is was an emergency case, maybe after hours and sounds like it was at a private hospital. Private hospital cater to the wealthy, those that can pay a lot of money for their care. Anyway that is my two-cents worth.
Just got my bill for abdominal ct scan with contrast. $7500 . My daughter had rotator cuff surgery and the from beginning to end only cost around $10,000.
I live in California. Just got my insurance company’s explanation of benefits statement re my hospital’s bill for my recent chest CT scan and a nuclear bone scan. These were deemed medically necessary as I am a 9-year breast cancer survivor and something suspicious had turned up on my annual chest x-ray. My doctor’s nurse had said the CT scan would probably cost $700-$800. But the hospital billed my insurance company a total of $8400 for both procedures combined. I am dumbfounded and wondering how to pay, as I’m now unemployed.
This situation here is outrageous. No matter what machines and service agreements cost, the system is clearly broken. This is a for-profit system and boy is someone making a profit–lots of them. And that profit is being made on the backs of people who are ill. Doesn’t this sound rather like a scene form Dante’s Inferno?
It will become worse if Obama does not make drastic changes. We need to reduce size of the Government while still regulating the industries such as medical industry. Government employees should be profit-sharing for every innovation in the work place, for every over-achievement and for good results.
Cat scan can cost as much as greed goes. What’s reasonable to “ask”? I think strict limits should be created what should be charged. Medical profession should not be a business, it should be a charity, a good will job. Only gifted and altruistic people should work in a medical field. Please stop using such terms as “medical industry” or “doctor’s business”. Human health field should not be a business.
P.S. A reasonable CT in USA should cost between $175 and $350 allowing that a medium monthly salary range is between $1000 and $3500 a month. Anything above that is a rip-off.
in uk we do not have to pay but if in a hurry you can and it costs £200
The kind of greed of “drug industry” we are dealing with… My blood pressure medication 5 years ago costed me just under a buck a day (uninsured). Same dose went up through $30’s and lower $40s a month and now Walmart raised the cost exactly 21% to almost $51. So I went to Walgreens and they told me it will cost $43/mo. regular price or $35/mo. with a $20 yearly discount membership. Walgreens also told me that if I am ok taking same drug twice a day I can get them at barely $4 a month! That’s a whopping more than 90% discount! There’s a big difference whether you order generic or trademarked drugs and also check out with another pharmacy. Regarding CAT SCAN. Last time they did it for my wife in 2004 it cost us $6500 and we are still paying for it around $145 monthly!
This is a very interesting discussion. Unfortunately there’s a lot of questions with very few satisfactory answers. Somehow we in the USA will get our system sorted out, but it will either have to implode at some point like the economy, or it will take decades to sort out.
Thank you all for the information you have provided, it was very helpful. I came looking to see about two charges for CT scans for which my wife recently had been billed. They were done in the same session at the scanner, and I thought it might not be right that they were billed as two separate scans.
Just for comparison here are my charges:
DESCRIPTION CHARGE NEGOTIATED NOT COVERED
COMBO PEL CT W $1040.00 $884.00 $88.40
CT ABD/PEL W $1040.00 $884.00 $88.40
READING FOR #1 $225.00 $85.96 $9.55
READING FOR #2 $225.00 $78.24 $8.69
The facility is a small-town hospital. The information I could dig up on the web says their machine is a 64-slice TOUR CT scanner, new in 2007. I’m not sure if they have a newer one since then, and I don’t know how much it originally cost. The diagnostic reading was performed by another company in a larger city about 30 miles away.
After reading all the posts here, I think the charges were not too outrageous. We are fortunate to have good health insurance, and so the amount we have to pay is not going to hurt too badly. However, I still get the feeling that the system is not set up to minimize cost.
If the facility is willing to accept the $884 per scan, why then do they charge $1040 initially? The obvious answer is “because they can.” However, what happens to the patients that don’t have a health insurance company to negotiate for them? Do they get billed the full amount? That doesn’t seem like an honest way of doing business. The difference between the amount charged and the amount accepted is often over 50 percent, so we’re not talking about a small “quid pro quo” discount here.
In terms of our capitalist system, there is a lack of competition. We don’t have any choice about emergency health care services in this town. There is only one hospital in the county, and the nearest city with more than one hospital is a 40 minute drive minimum. In my opinion, the only way to solve the dilemma is to increase the competition in a way which benefits the patients. Medical facilities need an incentive to provide the best care at the lowest cost, in a competitive environment with similar facilities.
Scenario:
Patient goes to emergency room, receives care for abdominal pain. Patient is treated successfully, then goes home. Patient scores doctor with a “report card” provided by insurance agency (private or government). Payment is made with a fixed amount based upon diagnosis (NOT procedures) and a “bonus” based upon the patient’s scoring of the care provided.
Does anyone think the scenario above would work? What problems would it cause? I know we all have different experiences and background, so I’d like to hear what you all think.
Best wishes to all, and good health!
After two bouts with blood in my urin in the last six months, my doctor recommended a CT scan. The scan took only 30 minutes and showed no abnormalities. But three weeks later I got a bill for $6,000.00. You got to be kidding me!!! now I feel like I have blood comming from my sphinter. Is there anything I can do.
Just don’t pay it if it’s way above any reasonable amount. Ask them for an itemized bill. Some credit institutions usually turn a blind eye on such medical bills in your credit history.
Hi vijay i too had bad experiences with ER billing ,i work as a medical biller and coder .I think the main problem is with the doctors they are greedy for money and they have all forgotten the oath they take while getting their cerificates.I have seen doctors charging $ 700 for a two day consultation in a hospital where as the medicare rates are only $90 the pt an old lady whio is financially weak fearing that the case will be sent to collections paid in full ordinary citizens dont know why they are billed so high.when i brought this incident to the notice of the doctors i had a good dose from them .I daily go through this kind of incidents.I need a job so i cant go against my boss’s orders.In my opinion the rates to the doc’s and labs should change. i dont know what obama’s health reform is up to but i think he is upto some good thing and all these insurance companies and doctors are trying there best to oppose his ideas ,as a whole helath care in US is a shit i like the system in India.I have a lot of write may be next time.
when we buy insurance, we are betting that we will die, or get sick, or have a car accident, or that any of myriad back luck scenarios will befall us. of course they don’t and the insurance companies make a lot of money. and they are not stupid. they have actuaries working for them, figuring the odds at every turn and in essence rigging the game so that they can determine the profit margin, and it can be whatever they want it to be. now, that’s just like letting someone take whatever they want from you, in hopes that someday they might do something for you in return.
anyway, the insurance agencies are a large part of why health care costs so much, but there are many other things going on in the health care industry that make health care too expensive. we talked about the cat scan machines. yes, they are expensive, but there is no need for them to cost that much. also there is no need for a cat scan to be so expensive. if you add up the electricity and the time of the people involved, and amortize the cost of the cat scanner over its useful life, the cat scan is a very cheap test. cat scans are expensive because the insurance industry makes sure they are. they tell the hospitals “we will pay you x dollars for every cat scan you do.” x is an amount that is much more than the hospital needs to charge to break even or even turn a profit on the procedure, and an amount that surely cannot be paid out of pocket by an average person, but not enough to affect the profit the insurance company wants to make. so, the price is set.
now watch this magic trick … if the hospital is allowed to do all the cat scans it wants to do, the hospital will soon be turning a profit that is so great that the hospital might be able to offer lower prices or even free services in other areas. people would not need insurance coverage for all those services any more, since the cat scan profit takes care of it all. what would that do to the bottom line of the insurance companies? it would drive their profit down tremendously. so what happens? the insurance companies put constraints on the number of cat scans a given provider can perform in a given period, thus controlling the hospital’s profit and ensuring that the insurance company can continue to exist.
i thought and thought about this and decided to look at other aspects of insurance. the same thing has happened with automobile insurance. most people would carry liability only if they could afford to pay the body shop fees. however, dent your fender and take it to the body shop. you have a 1000 bill on your hands before they even start work. you know that is true. why are the repair costs so high? for the same reason health care costs a lot. the body shops like what the insurance will pay, and at the same time an individual can’t afford the repair. also, the same kinds of controls are put on body shops as hospitals. they aren’t allowed to profit in a given area and reduce prices in other areas.
if we want affordable health care, remove the insurance companies from health care. the public option will not work because the public option will have to compete with the insurance companies in what they pay. and they will have to operate the same way as the insurance companies or the insurance companies will cry foul.
the only way out is to announce a phase out of health insurance, say over 10 or 15 years, giving things time to adjust. when that happens, the same laws of economics that allow high health care costs will come into operation again, the main law being that the prices will be what the market will bear. but this time, the price is not created artificially but will actually be based on the income of the individual and can be paid out of his or her own pocket.
this can happen. it’s a reality that this can happen. because without health care the society will die. so, if people want the society to live and even prosper, health care must be affordable by the individual.
It might be argued that there will be no money for research if this kind of thing happens. well, i ask you to think about that.
We all agree CT scans are overpriced. How do we fix this without it coming at us in another direction (higher taxes, less availability per quotas, etc.)? It’s true it costs less in some countries for these services but also look at the income levels and tax levels those countries maintain. I think if you look at the big picture here you’ll still shake your head over the numbers. I’m not sure not paying a medical bill is the answer. My finger still likes to point to the malpractice lawsuits as a reasonable cause (Insurance companies being the bad guy holding hands with the lawyers); however, I remember reading somewhere that Doctors are the worst at paying back student loans - hello????
Texas. My wife recently had an abdominal obstruction which they discovered after doing a two CT scans. Total charge for two scans $6,500.usd…So I know the high cost quotes here are correct. Total cost for 3 days at hospital over $30,000.usd that is including, operation, room, doctors,labs, etc… Oh, did I mention we don’t have insurance. I told them I don’t have insurance and can not pay that much. I told them ( I’
m dealing with about five different dr.s and hospital) that I could come up with about half that. They all took it; now I wish I had said a third. Bottom line the cost of medical service in the USA is gastronomical. My wife is Taiwanese and we lived in Taiwan for 10 years before moving back to the US. We paid about $30 USD a month for insurance there and there was no deductable , only a small charge on some things. Both of my babies cost about $100. a piece and the service is good and the most of the doctors train in the US. So, if they can do it why can’t the USA?
i’m a service engineer, i do service to this machines, what makes this prices go up is the price of the parts for this new machines, the x-ray tube it self can cost 180,000 dollars, but the price for the scanns for over 1,000 is way over taking notice that they do at least 15 patients a day on this units, so if we do the math, is 15 x 5,000 x 5 days week =225,000 per week. That make us think that the health care system is only working for the investor of this hospitals, they don’t care for people. i’m planning on buying multslice machines and installing them in arizona and give fixed price for scans for less than 650 dollars including reading with a certified doctor in the USA.
Carlos, send a letter of introduction about the advantages for patient pricing to local doctor’s offices. You’ll have a booming business! Good luck!
Carlos - great! I hope you are serious to do that. I am in SC, I hope you do that in SC as well. Or let me know how I can do it in SC? We may need to hire security guards to protect ourselves from medical medical industry’s itmen :-))
I hope it can be done for much less than that.. how about $300 or $100? There are many families that $100 is big money to us… please don’t forget us.. my family only receives $800 per month in income, so even $100 is a lot for us..
That’s a great idea Carlos. Wishing you all the best if you’re serious about it.
Carlos, that is exactly the kind of activity that can turn this health care juggernaut around. I’d be interested to hear if the insurance companies and health care professionals support your effort or if they try to undercut it instead.
George, the problem I foresee with eliminating health insurance is that many of the services we are talking about paying for are not equally affordable to people of different income levels. Unlike with automobiles, we don’t get to choose the value of the insurable item. Our health is not something we can upgrade or diminish based upon affordability. I can drive a 1979 model vehicle and only carry collision insurance, but I can’t just decide I’m only going to pay for wart removal if I need heart surgery. You are absolutely right that the insurance companies are able to set the price however they want, and that is a huge problem.
I suppose the root of the health care controversy is whether you believe all citizens should have the same treatment regardless of their income. Is health care something that we believe everyone should receive just for being a citizen, or do we have to earn the right to be well?
Many people would immediately answer that everyone should have equal treatment regardless of ability to pay. Upon deeper reflection, one must also consider that we would all be paying not only for respectable folks that have no money, but also for those that choose not to take care of themselves. Would you be willing to pay for the trust fund kid who gets rushed to the ER three times in one year for heart attack after taking cocaine? Would you be willing to pay for someone injured in a car accident who wasn’t wearing a safety belt? If care is unlimited, how do we make sure patients don’t replace insurance companies as the tyrants of the system?
Unfortunately, the basic laws of economics apply to our health care. We can not affect the demand for services very much, because we have relatively little control over illness. Perhaps we should instead look at increasing the supply of doctors, hospitals, and diagnostic services. Instead of government paying for treatment, funding could assure doctors are able to afford schooling, and hospitals are able to afford equipment. Spending money on the supply side could be just as effective at controlling cost and lead to better care as well.
I think the profit motives behind high diagnostic costs for MRIs and CTs are partly due to the “I’m best” attitudes of hospitals that lead them to invest in more and more equipment they cannot justify over very short amortization times and the greed of doctors who open imaging centers to pad their incomes. I have a plan to solve both of these problems, similar to the WPA solution of the 1930s. The government should create a health tax, paid annually by every person in the US over the age of 5. The tax would be a flat rate, everyone paying the same amount, ie $80 per person (the amount would vary). With 300 million people, the first year assessment of 24 billion would purchase 8000 MRI machines from say GE or some other provider, which would be disseminated around the country to qualifying health facilities who would agree to house the units. GE would maintain the units free of charge for 10 years. All MRIs would then be charged to the patient for a nominal fee ($50-100) paid for by the patient. No insurance would be billed. No profit would be made by the hospital or facility, and patients could go to any government owned machine for the procedure. Doctors would be free to order any and all the MRIs they felt were needed without costing the system, thereby improving access to all people. The costs would be eliminated from the insurance provider. In this case, this one year assessment would replace all existing MRI machines and drop the costs for over 10 years. Next year, a $25 assessment would replace all CT machines in the US with similar savings. Blood analyzers, dialysis machines, radiation treatment equipment, etc would be targeted in future years. Over a period of years, the costs of insurance would drop because the costs would quickly vanish.
Great article, everyone should read with attention: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/185.html
Excerpts from the article:
“Doctors in Cuba can make more driving cabs and working in hotels, but they don’t. They’re just very dedicated.”
“Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank’s dictum that economic growth is a precondition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not downright wrong. The Bank has insisted for the past decade that improving the lives of the poor was its core mission.”
My comment:
Shame on many doctors in USA and in many other “developed” countries, how dedicated to profits (not to people’s health) they are.
Had a similar experience a couple weeks ago. Had an abdominal pain, was concerned it could be appendicitis. Went to the ER, the Doctor did a CT scan and it showed I was OK. I was there for a total of 3 hours.
When I checked out and told them I didn’t have insurance they automatically took 50% off my bill.
Just got the bill, $4200, that’s half price.
One question Vijay. The Indian healthcare, is it government subsidized at all, or is it a purely capitalist system?
Hi, I found this page from a google search I did on overpriced Cat Scans. It is insane how much I have to pay in the US for a Cat Scan. Luckily my last scan was covered by my insurance, but they ended up paying this particular facility $5500 for one scan. ONE SCAN.
Now seeing as how much people are paying in other areas it makes me wonder where all this money is going to. The worst part about it is my problem is renal colic (kidney stones) which I have regularly so I know I could be back (they are extremely painful). Without insurance for every ER visit I’m going to be paying almost 10k for them to scan me and give me some pain meds. This is absolutely insane.
OMG…I just wanna cry rite now. Actually I just receive the bill from hospital which cost $716.00 for abdominal ultrasound and, $2036.00 for Ct abdomen W, Locm 350-399mg/MI which I don’t know what the heck it is. CT pelvis W $1493.00. All total $4545.00 for doing that stuffs. What the freak?????? God, I dont know what they doing… I went to the US health, the doctor said he didn’t know what disease I got, he made appointment then send me to hospital to check. I’m just international student. I almost freaking out when see the bill. Also there is a bill from physican which cost $508.25. God help me!!! I dont know how can I pay all of that. 5 thousand dollar for checking???? In my countries, VN, so cheap to do that stuff, around $300.00 only. Can I make payment every month? Why is it so expensiveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…….
We have BCBS in the US, my wife just called crying because she has a hard mass, the dr ordered a CT, she showed up for the CT, was told that it will be $5200. Our insurance deductible per year is $2000. They told her that we had to pay $2100 before the procedure could be done.
When she stated that they should do the procedure, since it was ordered by her DR, and bill our insurance, they stated that they needed 30% down payment.
When asked what our insurance allows for it, they would not say (I know we can call our insurance and ask them).
She had to fore-go the procedure because they would not budge - and we have always paid our DR. bills, never gone into collections and we have decent (we thought) health insurance (CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield).
This is ridiculous, something has to be done, but I don’t believe the US govt. should stick their fingers in it.
Purely Economics. The cost of a USED CT Scanner is around a cool million. In order to recuperate costs and show benefit a price must be charged in order to break free on the item for profitability.
This is very much similar to the principle of determining the costs to rent a property. You determine what you paid for the property and then a reasonable time frame in which to recuperate the property costs and then voila! the rent per month amount.
Lordi: Did you even read the article? It addresses the economics and the cost of the machine doesn’t account for the high price of CT Scans in the US.
Here’s my story: called 911 for a lack of knowledge of a psychological support hotline. They asked if I wanted them to come, I said, no thanks, I feel fine after talking. They came anyway, brought a “bed on wheels” to carry me and offered me a ride. I said no thanks I’m fine. They kind of forced me to go to the hospital and did not allow me to walk to the car. I already felt fine. I was just too shy to say no. In the hospital they proposed a CT scan, I did not know what it was, they told me it’s fun, I did not know the costs involved. In the country where I’m from medical care is free, included in taxes which are about 30% off income. I had no chance to choose or decide as I was not informed about pricing, I thought it all was either free or affordable, something like $175 for the entire ordeal. The bill was $5000 and I lived in one of the poorest states in the US. The “ride” (one way) alone was $800. I had to spend $55 on a taxi cab on my way home. Since then I stopped calling 911. I started eating healthy and taking supplements and I feel so much better. And if I ever feel bad I’ll probably deal with it within my home…. NO THANK YOU, Mr. DOCTOR! No more screwed up blood tests and lost urinal analyses.
How does one know and makes sure when a blood test result is true and not a lie? Also, how long does it take on average to get the answer from your doctor for your cholesterol blood test? I’ve waited a week and nothing so far.
Healthcare in the USA sucks!!!!!!!!!!
Im in the process of getting a CT scan in a few days of my abominal area for the amaizing price of $9,190 dollars of which I have to pay $1500 out of pocket. My g/f had the same procedure done a couple months back and paid out of pocket close to the same amount $1300. The catch is that I have insurance and my g/f doesnt. Im not mad at her for getting a great discount and getting treatment, in fact Im happy she saved money and is now healthy. The problem is that we (people who are paying for insurance) are getting played like fools. Not only do we pay insurance evrey week through our employers, but other people (who dont pay insurance) basically get the same or even lower discounts. How do you think I feel?
Figure that one out.
Are we better off not having insurance?
Anyone in there right mind would say yes, but if things continue to be like they are we all my just loose our mind.
You are much, much, MUCH, way better off if you cancel your health insurance and start eating and living healthy. Please trust me. People were doing well without medical insurance and “medical INDUSTRY” not so long ago. And if you need something major done, you can go to an ER and pay them as much as you can. The rest they will write off or will put on your “credit history” which, the infamous credit history, and usage of credit, should be abandoned by all Americans and by the rest of the world as well.
So here are three milestones for smart living: LIVE HEALTHY, USE SAVINGS, GET ADVISE AND INFO ON THE WEB.
November 29th 2009
Last week i spent less than24 hours in the hospital.I have no insurance and never will due to preexisting conditions.
My bill is over 10,000 dollars. My CT scan is 4500. My nights stay , where I slept in a non private woman who reeked of urine because it spilled when they were emptying her folie, cost me 815 dollars. I slept there 14 hours.. SLEPT>>> I was put in a room at 9 pm, and released at 1:00 the following day. So it cost me an average of 58 dollars an hour to sleep there. WTH?!?!
Also, I was in the E.R. for 8 1/2 hours.. mostly where I sat, cold, in pain, and waiting. that portion of the bill 873.00/ do that breaks down to 100$ an hour to be in tremendous pain, while I waited on a hard ass chair, freezing, hungry, because I was to sick from pain to eat.. and being exposed to all the possible H1N1 and other germs… and I have a compromised immune system!! My ultrasound of my leg, fancy name being Veinous doppler cost me $.624.00. The coumadin pill they gave me, was billed to me at $5. , when I had my month long prescription filled for it, after getting home, it was 4 bucks. Okay, how backwards is that. The hospital charged me more for one pill, than the pharmacy did for an entire months worth!!! I was charged TWICE for an I.V…. because the lady couldnt get it, even after I told her I HAD to use the smaller I.V’s due to issues with my veins.. so I got charged a second time, for the smaller needle, because the idiots didn’t listen.
I did extensive research today, and found that the hospital is making an additional 1500. on me, according to the average cost of test I have had run.. charging me nearly $3100. instead of $1700.. and thats just the first of my 3 page bill.
I am so upset, I dont know what to do. But they had me between a rock and a hard place as I was having blood clots, and we though some has passed into my lungs. IT SUCKS AND ITS JUST WRONG>
Stephanie,
Sorry to hear your pain. Now imagine what so-called “Third World” people feel and experience having NO medical care or inferior medical care. Yet I’d rather experience an inferior medical care in a country where it’s free or cheap rather than be taken for a for-profit ride like you did and feel like a subject of profit. You know, if the ER, the hospitals and the private medical “industry” did not make (good, huge) profits out of their patients perhaps they would not be there? We would have NO medical care whatsoever? False! We would then have a public medical care, perhaps not so efficient, but a decent one, without having to pay arm and a leg! True doctor is someone who is altruistically helps his/her patients, no matter what. Now the so-called “doctors” are put on a for-profit rollercoaster to make ass much money as they can. All they can comment is how patients stink after picking them up without having an opportunity having a shower. US claims to be the Numero Uno, The Richest, The Best, The Biggest, The X-est country in the entire world, yet if you dig deeper, it’s not that great, not anymore. So why don’t we all take it and change it from the roots to the branches. I hope the new health bill by Obama will change the way Us medical system (not industry!) works. If it will be not enough, we will have to do some drastic steps to further change it. We will. Until then, we will have to say we live, in a Third World country the USA is, at least in terms of treating us like people and not like car parts.
Regards,
Jeremy
Simple fact - In the United States people are greedy. This includes your average Joe (because they cannot accept facts of life and anything that goes wrong is somebody’s fault and so let’s sue them attitude!), industry (because they want to rip everyone else in the world), doctors (because they want to be rich and considered to be God) and politicians (as they want to remain in power and therefore they will never do anything from rich lobbying group of doctors who bribe the politicians in more than one way).
What do you expect? Enjoy the American dream but dont be poor or fall sick in your country!
Exactly. And most American (USA) women have this star or celebrity syndrome, treating themselves as if they were some Goddesses, chosen people, yet in real life it just looks funny looking at them from overseas. They may be able to fool simple poor foreigners into thinking they are almost like Gods (because of Holly Wood movies), but everyone else knows well what system the US has, and it has a very poor system for Humanity. Take a look at the poison they put in people’s foods: http://www.msgtruth.org/avoid.htm . It is not my website, but I discovered it only today. The author is a scientist who was fired by Food “Industry” for refusing to lie to the consumers and to the food inspectors. Remember this word: GLUTAMATE - this is what “indirectly” makes US Americans fat and unhealthy. If you eliminate poisons from your food by carefully selecting what you eat, you will eliminate the need for CT scans and other medical care in most cases. Begin your effort to put the Food, Drug and Medical “INDUSTRIES” out of business now. GLU TA MA TE. (glue tomato - for easy remembering).
Complaining about insurance companies won’t help. Your calm action will. First of all all insurers live off our money. What can we do is simply to cut the feeding tube off. No, not by going to another greedy insurer-shark, but by selling your car and moving into an area that has public transportation. There you will save on all kinds of costs: car maintenance, gasoline, car repair, car insurance, parking fees, traffic tickets and the car’s cost itself. I know, you’re talking about HEALTH insurance here, I know, but start with you car – give the ass holes who sent all our jobs overseas a kick in the butt by spending less, shutting the f’ing economy down, walking more, thus becoming more healthy, thus giving big insurance and other corporations a hard time. Then, quit your health insurance, yes, just quit it and start eating healthy, go on a diet and hit ER if you really need it, even if you can’t pay for it. Don’t get any health insurance anymore until they come up with something really reasonable. Don’t give up too soon! Keep on going. If everyone does this in USA, then the system will change very soon, you will see. They will have no choice, but to give in and to start respecting individual people again. We want TRUE FREE MARKET ECONOMY and not Corporation-Protecting Corpo-Socialism. We had enough of insurance RIP-OFF! It’s time to end it now.
I just got hit by a bill from a local medical center. It’s $530. Guess for what. It’s for cholesterol test. I also paid $90 to the family physician’s office. A total of $620 for a prescription for blood pressure medication and a simple blood test for cholesterol. Same thing 5 years ago costed me $70 (in a better area). I live in one of the poorest county in the United States. Is this entire county corrupt, or this medical center is a huge rip-off but I’m not paying for it. Once they send me a reasonable bill (I believe $90 covered it all, perhaps an extra $60 would be ok to pay to them.
Vijay,
very nice post. $1400 ultrasound is nonsense!
In Russia it’s $20-30 even in commercial clinic.
wlad, russia.
Hey there,
Just so you know. I googled cost of abdominal CT Scan (with Contrast) because of my recent experience and found this site. Here in Simpsonville, SC, USA, at Hillcrest hospital, I was charged $5,100.00 for my CT Scan test. We are self pay. I feel like I will throw up. Not so much because of this one test, but because I now understand why health care/medical bills is a serious cause of bankruptsy in the USA. Holy crap, if we get sick (cancer or the like) we will have to leave our country for treatment.
I am very upset…Why didn’t I shop around to find out costs. We were advised to go there by the gastro doc and I did not realize it would be more than $1000/$1500 bucks. LOL Next time I will ask how much the procedure will be.
*sigh*
Hope things get better. I am so sorry for those with life threatening illnesses that will not get the care because of this situation. Thank the heavens we have options for traveling over seas for help. Kind of Sucks USA isn’t better at handling health care.
*pulls wool off of eyes*
Kind regards.
Sincerely,
Shannon
Middle Class Very Small Business Owner, Wife, Mother
(Schelmyathotmaildotcom)
I had a ct scan in Belgium ,the price 180 Euro’s. In Ireland I had an ultra sound examination of my kidneys to investigate proteinuria, the price zero.NO cost to me whatsoever. The American health system can only be described as mad and criminal.
I live in Serbia, and we do have a free medical insurance, similar to Canada. However, waiting time for CT and MRI can sometimes be in excess of 4 weeks, if you want to get it covered by healthcare. If you decide not to wait - you can always do it in some of the private clinics, and these are the average prices at a respectable examination center:
MRI (brain, spine, soft tisues, etc.) - 135$
MRI (whole body, oncological) - 210$
CT (head, or abdomen, or spine, or ankles…) - 65$
Ultrasound - 25 to 40$, depending on the type
Plane ticket to here from US - 500 to 1000$, depending on where you are
7 days stay in the hotel - 200 to 2000$
Therefore, if you live in the US, and you are in need for some of these examinations, it makes sense to go to the nearest travel agency, book a flight and stay for 7 days in Belgrade, and you can use your spare time to see Paris, Rome, Prague, Budapest, Wienna, or Athens (all within hour long flight)
When you sum everything up, you will likely pay a lot less than in your neighborhood clinic.
It is true that CT scan cost in America so much but service best among the other country. Nice post thanks`
Let me tell you why I think it costs that much.
1. Insurance Companies X Free Enterprise (all the rules that I learned in Business School doesn’t apply here.)
Economics tells us if there are many sellers and many buyers in the market for a product or a service, this will drive the prices down and quality up. Well demand is there and the supply is there but in health care industry this rule doesn’t work. why because the consumer who gets the service is not the one who is paying for it. most of americans get health insurance through their employers…
Shouldn’t the employer be interested to pay as low as possible for their employee’s health insurance? That would save them tons of money on all of their employees.
US healthcare is best in the world? LMAO….!! I’ve had very bad experiences with US healtcare system, much worse than in Soviet Union. Every time, almost every time I went to see a doctor (except dentists) there was a problem. They either lost my urine and blood samples or they were wearing a coat and were in a rush or they never gave me my cholesterol result and then lied, misdiagnosed me and caused me thousands of dollars in bills, x-rayed me 12 times in a few minutes time!!! because she could not make my chest at the right angle!!?? then another wto places x-rayed me many times again - mistake! One place (dentist) x-rayed me twice (first was a mistake!) without protection! She apologised (young girl) that she forgot to put protection on my chest! She apologised! Oops! Sorry! You may get cancer years later, oops, sorry! Then they tried to rip me off by charging $350 for a cholesterol test (instead of ~$70) etc. etc. many many stories, too many to fit in here, and you call it the best healthcare in the world? People tell me healthcare in Colombia, South America is much better than in USA! And a doctor in a ER (emergency room hospital) told me (no joke! no mistake nor mistype!) that 95% are doctor rerror! Yes 95% I asked him again, he reconfirmed! He said 95% deaths in their hospital are 95% doctor’s mistake! And I was misdiagnosed with electrolyte imbalance and charged $800 while I was 100% healthy! US healthcare to me 98% was and is a JOKE!!
Nymous, I’m confused. You said you were 100% healthy. Why did you go to a doctor in America then?
Ann, if you like to pick one thread up and analyze it with a microscope, here you go - it’s natural to go to a doctor for a routine cholesterol check and then they mess (overkeep it) your blood and urine and misdiagnose you with some horrible disease and tell you (by sending cops to your house!) you’re gonna die in 1 hour if you don’t go to the ER! I rush myself to the ER just to find out I was misdiagnosed and it will cost me $800! And then they charge me $350 for a simple cholesterol test! This is how they make money in US America! So then after all the 3 hours in the ER they told me I was healthy, but the bill sent to me did not seem to be “healthy” and low. They screw up and I have to pay for it. Are you satisfied now?
CT Scanners can also be purchased refurbished. This helps to cut costs without compromising quality.
A CT scan is required annually for my husband. I remembered our last experience and when the doctor’s office called they said they would schedule it at Barnes Jewish Hospital. They said they “prefer” patients going there. I told them we did NOT prefer Barnes and that we’d rather go to Metro Imagining. She said she would make the appointment. Which leads me to believe some sort of “commission” is being paid to the doctor’s office for these scans. But, unlike Barnes Jewish Hospital that charged the insurance company three times the cost of Metro, they told me via phone during our reminder phone call that it is 100% covered through insurance. So the added costs are through the hospital. If you have to have a CT scan done and are not currently a patient at a hospital, it pays to shop around! We have not recieved a single bill from his last CT scan and will continue to go to Metro Imaging. This saves us over $700/year (our cost after insurance pays what they are saying is their costs - negotiated)! Yipee!
Wow I can’t believe the kind of prices you guys are quoting ,I recently had a catscan in kenya at a goverment hospital for 7$ yup 7 us dollars!
I just had an EKG done in USA - it cost me only $55. This is because I got a low income.
Isn’t Kenyan monthly salary a $10?
CT sacn abdomen cost $6000 at Stanford and 2000 in a free standing CT center. This is ridiculous.
ER visits are outrageously expensive. Preventative medicine is the best approach. Waiting until you are sick is a bad idea… physically and fiscally. We lost a friend to an aneursym and have been thinking of a CT scan and will be pricing them out. I shopped for awhile before doing a colonoscopy and it was about $1800. More thana thousand less than others were quoting. I like the idea of going to Belgrade better…
I just got bill for $4000 for the CT scan of which my insurance paid $220 and another $180 was required for co-pay for a total of $400. But the poor uninsured would have been stuck for the full amount unless they had the foresight to negotiate a lower price before the procedure. But how do they justify this type of costs? If we assume that a Sieman CT scanner would cost $500,000 amortized over 5 years would be $100,000 per year. Add one technician at $50,000 plus the Dr. cut at $100,000 and the Hospital cut at $100,000 and the actual floor space at $50,000, the total annual cost for the CT scan is: $400,000. With 5 days a week and only one patient per day, that would equate to 200 patients per year. The cost per patient would be $2000. But in the Hospital I went to they were averaging at least 8 patients per day (a CT scan takes 30 minutes) which would bring the cost down to $250 each patient! So why don’t the hospitals go ahead and charge everyone $500 (for a 100% profit above the $200,000 that the Dr. and Hospital receive just for the scan itself) and let everyone afford their care? There is no other industry in America where these kind of costs are justified (except the financial markets)!
7 out of 8 patients don’t pay for CT, so that one guys pays for everyone the $4000, which is a ridiculous system. If they charged fair amounts, almost everyone would pay.
I know firsthand how out of control hospitals are on their services. One big thing…Do not go to any type of Catholic hospital, without health insurance. I know I am opening a big kettle of worms…but it is the truth. With my husbands cancer, we needed follow-up radiation. We asked the accounting dept. at the hospital what it would run, without health insurance. She had to run it by them, and came back with an $80,000 pricetag. Insurance pays $55,000 for the procedure, and the hospital accepts it as paid in full, so there is a $25,000 upcharge to begin with. Then the fun began. We did the radiation, as they said they would accept payments. 9 months later, they decided that the $430 a month was unacceptable, evene though they were the ones who set the amount. They then decided they wanted the amount in full…which turned out to be $113,850, after the $3,800 we had already paid. In other words, $37,650 more than we were told it would cost, and there were no extras or surprises. Even more distressing, $62,650 more than they would have received from insurance. We tried everything to work a deal with them. We had some cash, but it was retirement money, which by the way is history. One smart aleck women, even mentioned that they would accept farm ground if we had any. All I can say is…we have contributed to the popes retirement fund, and I am glad we could keep him in the style he is accustomed to! Thank you Grand Island Saint Francis Hospital.
My head is exploding looking at such figures…. $100,000 for a treatment?
Are they crazy, greedy and THAT evil?
USA - almost a typical Third World country. The only difference - in Third World countries people are mostly caring and friendly, supporting to each other, while in USA most people are fake.
Had a bill for over $500 from a local doctor office for a cholesterol test! This is America!
I am watching a program on UCTV (channel next to Link TV on Dish) where a specialist researcher talks and she just said that people receiving CT scans have a 1 in 100 cancer risk. No kidding. And she says doses of radiation in CT scans are increasing, so the risk is as high as 1 in 80 to get cancer from a single CT scan. Blog that.
I just had the same thing happen to me that happened to Alexandra Varipapa: a massive bill for a CAT scan performed when I went into the hospital for debilitating pain that turned out to be from a kidney stone. The CAT scan charge alone was circa $8,800. I am stunned and intend to fight it.
And it’s not just the third world that provides more affordable health care than the US; other first world countries aren’t anywhere near this rapacious when it comes to the costs of health care.
I occasionally see poll numbers that suggest that Americans don’t like the cost of US health care, but they don’t seem to care enough to revolt against it or do anything else about it. And then there were the widespread 2009 right-wing protests in the US against the very idea of affordable, universal health care, a position referred to in the US as “conservative,” as if it’s sensible. Crazy!
Guys,
I just had my CT scan (abdomen and pelvis) with/without contract. The total cost including radiologist is $750 (no insurance). This is an independent radiology center. The cost for the same procedure in the hospital was $1700.
If you are in the US look for independent imaging centers for CT or MRI, they are usually one third the cost of hospitals.
The CBS article about $8000 is cooked up.
We live in Australia. My young adult son saw his GP with chronic sinus infections a couple of days ago. She requested a CT scan of his head, which he was able to have performed by a private company the following day. The cost was fully covered by the Australian Government’s Medicare health system - it cost him nothing. Thank goodness we live in Australia.
The only way it cost him nothing is if he’s never paid any taxes.
You could also argue that you cannot say, for example, that it cost you nothing to walk to the shops: it cost you something in taxes to pay for the concrete to build the footpath you walked along, and it cost you something in taxes to supply the traffic lights that stopped the cars so you could walk across the crossing. We all contribute towards the infrastructure that goes towards creating our society. In this instance, we all contribute a small amount towards providing a universal health care service that provides for those in need, as opposed to those that are unfortunate enough to require the health care service having to meet the full cost themselves.
Here in Lithuania a chest CT scan would cost you approximately 800 Lt (~$320), provided you had NO mandatory health insurance (which all working people and university students get automatically, and you can even pay it yourself for a mere 72 Lt / month [approx. $29] ) or NO referral from a doctor. With insurance and a referral from a doctor, some places might ask you to pay for the contrast dye, but otherwise the scan would be free.
I’m shocked at the prices in the US… There goes my dream to get Pulmonary Thromboendarterectomy (PTE) surgery done at UC San Diego which are inventors of the procedure, and the best at it in the whole world. I’m no millionaire, after all…
I think what it boils down to is that the big-profit factor has to be removed from frontline healthcare. While ever there is big money to be made out of it, whether it be by direct charges to the people unfortunate enough to be in need of services beyond a simple GP visit; or whether it be charges by the health care insurance industry which aims to maximise income and minimise payouts, then people’s health is held to ransom in the name of maximising profits. The emphasis in health care should be on providing the best possible health care outcomes for ALL of the population at the most affordable price possible for the members of society. While ever corporate profits remain the focus of frontline healthcare, then costs will remain high and people will continue to suffer severe financial difficulties because of the misfortune of ill-health.
After not feeling well, we were told to go to the ER. I’m not even sure if the cardio doctor we see called us back or if it was the general gp’s office that told us to go to the ER. No one could see my husband when he needed to be seen. We went to the ER where they ordered the CT scans.
Note: This is the same hospital - Barnes Jewish that we had gone to via doctor’s recomendations and had to pay over $700 out-of-pocket after the negotiated insurance price. We had insurance that we pay over $300/month via the program through work.
We waited for the bill. None arrived! Apparently if it was an ER visit the scans were 100% covered! However, if it was considered a TEST via a doctor’s office - there’s where the problem starts. So, what percentage of kickbacks are doctors getting for these “tests”? Makes me wonder. We’ll continue to go to Metro Imaging for the routine scans that’s required. The cancer issue has me worried though and I’ll bring that up with the Cardio doctor on the next visit.
Thanks to all here for their shared experience. I really hope we can help others with these costs via research on the Internet. I know we’ll be sure to research costs for any test beforehand if possible and discuss alternatives (thinking a trip to India would be in order - smirk). At least that way we could get medical test inexpensive while discussing our cell phone bill.
Hello Vijay,
Thank you so much for sharing this information with us. You should know that in US, doctor’s office, testing places are not willing to give you as patient enough information to give a quote. Well, at least that is my most recent experience. We were ordered to get an MRI and ultrasound done, with no information on the cost. I mean, any sane person don’t go to car dealership and buy thousands of dollars worth of car without asking the price. Why can’t they be more transparent? I called up almost everyone (doctor’s office, testing facility, etc), no one can give me the pricing. They all say we don’t know…
I managed to squeezed out a little info that an MRI will cost us from 1100 - 2000 US$ for a head area scan. Obviously not everyday person can just pay that amount since we have not met our deductible yet. But even after deductible met, we still have to pay an extra 20% of what left and then the insurance cover the 80%.
You won’t believe how much health care cost in here getting higher each year. More people can’t get access to them because of this.
I need a CT scan (abdomen and pelvis) and have been quoted 4000 . I live in south Georgia (USA). My insurance deductible is 5000.00. I’m trying to find a better price on a CT scan so if anyone happens to read this and knows of anywhere I can look, please leave a reply. Thanks.
I had a pelvic, abdomen cat scan done recently at InMed in Columbia, SC at 2117 Gervais Street, Columbia, SC 29204. It cost me $155 without insurance. You should consider going to Columbia and saving almost $4000.
Call them: (803) 988-0082. Let me know how much you spent if you ever decide to go there. If they quote you much more, you may need to qualify first to apply with EAU CLAIRE COOPERATIVE HEALTH CENTERS. If you need their phone number, let me know. You will need your tax returns to qualify. They accept all income levels. My income level is medium low and if you have a low income level you may end up paying even less than $155, but I’m not sure of that.
here in Colorado metro area there is a imaging center that charges best prices for MRI and ct scans example ct any area $ 590 dollars, I just had one and the cost in the hospital with same machine $4,000 dollars and also they made me wait only 15 minutes and on the ER you can wait hours,they speak English,Spanish,German, Russian any question send me email
St John Christus - Clear Lake Texas
Emergency Room for a Kidney Stone.
I was in the Emergency room for less than 2 hours. A doctor talked to me for 5 minutes, a nurse for 10 minutes, 2 clerks for 10 minutes, and a cat-scan nurse for 5 minutes.
Cat-scanners new cost $350,000 - I am billed $4400 for just the cat-scan (70 customers for 5 minutes at $5 grand would equal the cost of the machine. Restated, that’s 5.8 hours)
I left the emergency room with a prescription for a pain killer and a referral to a doctors office - my 7mm by 8 mm ( 1/3 inch ) kidney stone remains inside me, otherwise untreated.
My total bill, counting the doctor fee, is $9000.oo (yes Nine Thousand Dollars)
I only have Medicare part A - mainly because my total income is $777 a month, As you can guess, I will not be paying the bill.
Medicare B would pay for Emergency rooms and some other expenses - when I turned 65 the price for Medicare B was $95 monthly. My Social Security was then $723 monthly. ..Leaves $623 to live on.
Today, should I sign up for Medicare B the price is $140 a month drawn from my current $777 monthly. That would leave me $637 to live on. (There is a penalty amount added to the price each year a person over 65 does not sign up.)
In addition, though I can sign up in January 2013, the Medicare B would not take effect until July 2013.
I know a lot of people in this boat.
I’m paying an ER $10 monthly for my ER bill, which started as a simple cholesterol check that should have cost me about $70, but ended up with huge amounts and I will be paying for many many years to come… I tried to negotiate a lower bill with the ER before we made a monthly installment plan agreement, but the ER declined to reduce my bill even for a penny. I decided to pay them since they threatened to put a lean on my house and to force me to pay them through my taxes.
What’s worse is that at I never been to an ER and I went to a local doc’s office to get my cholesterol checked up (and I’m a healthy person) and the recipient lady at the doc’s office told me all I pay is $60. So they took my blood etc. and I had to call the ER to find out the results as the doc’s office failed to send me anything. All they told me my cholesterol was 110.
It appeared that the doc’s office was a branch of a local ER! They get people in very cheaply at $60 per visit (if without insurance), but then they send all the bloodwork and urine to an ER who charge enormous amounts! They are definitely crooks, as in the past they tried to scam me telling me I had a deadly disease and I should call the ER immediately with the cops hanging around my house who told me same thing,go to the ER fast or call them to pick you up as you got some deadly condition like electrolyte imbalance. Then at the ER they told me it was a mistake, doctor’s error and I was free to go after 3 hours in the ER and the bill was fantastic. All that started with a simple cholesterol check and a couple bloodworks since they screwed my first one by overholding my blood for too long!
I’m still in the US but am looking to move to a NON-3rd world country ASAP.
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