I had an MRI this morning.

[irislake]

Wait time for appointment was two weeks. Wait time in hospital waiting room fifteen minutes. Cost? Six dollars for parking. I live in rural Ontario where care is supposed to be inferior to the city. Nobody I know has any complaints about our health care.

[The Straight Story]

1. All I had was a beer this morning

;)

Hope everything turned out ok for you!

[el_bryanto]

2. Or you have been waiting so long for medical care your mind has snapped and you hallucinated

all of this. I mean in fairness we have to consider all possibilities, no matter how ludicrous, rather than admit that our (meaning the United States) health care system is fundamentally messed up.

Bryant

[Lars39]

3. My last MRI was close to 4000 dollars.

Three years later I'm still paying for it. I can't afford another needed one any time soon. :(

[SOS]

24. In Japan, an MRI is, by law, $98

The government buys the machines and then sets the price.

It's crazy that you could have flown round-trip to Tokyo, had the MRI, spent a couple of days seeing the city, had the results sent back and still have had money left over.

We are being shafted in this country.

[Lars39]

30. Wow.

We're so backwards here. :(

[Kittycat]

4. We've never had an MRI for our son done within 4 wks.

West Suburbs, Chicago.

Free parking, but the cost was over a couple thousand.

[appamado amata padam]

5. "COMMUNISM!!!"

But seriously, best wishes, and thanks for the anecdote.

:-)

[Saturday]

6. I had an MRI done recently in the USA.

I had to wait 2 weeks just for the insurance company to approve it.

[postulater]

7. I send people for MRIs.

They cost $600 regardless of body part. That includes interpretation, duplicate copy on disc and a sweat suit from the MRI lab. It usually takes a day or two to get them in. Never longer, sometimes the person leaves my office and goes directly to the lab.

There are lots of MRI places here and they are having to compete.

[FlaGranny]

8. Where is "here"?

That doesn't sound like the US or Canada.

[MineralMan]

9. Could be the Twin Cities, MN...

There's an MRI place at practically every freeway exit here. Same day MRIs are commonplace, as my mother-in-law discovered. Most are owned by groups of doctors, it seems, so it's no wonder that lots of MRIs are done.

The last one she had done, or almost had done, was a duplicate of one from a week before, ordered by a different doctor. My wife, who accompanies her mom to the doctor, asked why they couldn't use the one from the week before. "Oh, OK," the doctor said. "We can have it sent over."

Morons and money-grubbers. No doubt the doctor ordering the MRI has a stake in the MRI place he was sending her.

Even the clinic I go to has an MRI machine and a CAT scan machine on premises. You just have to walk down the hall. It's always available and I suppose they need to get people into it to help pay for it.

[postulater]

19. I've seen that duplication too.

A surgeon requested a seond scan within two weeks with no change in the patient's condition. The only difference was that he ordered an extra plane viewed.

Amazingly the interpretations were nearly identical, even though read by different radiologists.

[Hansel]

35. I live in Twin Cities and posted about MRIs in #33 below.

My daughter and I as of Monday will have had 4 MRIs between us in the past 6 months. They do seem to be everywhere and have very quick scheduling turnaround.

Edit to add: None of these MRIs have been duplications though.

[postulater]

15. Im in Milwaukee, WI

[FlaGranny]

22. You ARE in the US, then . There isn't

anything like that around my area that I know of. There are MRI units around town, but every MRI I've had was way more than $600. Mine were with AND without contrast. That probably makes some difference. The last one I had was about 8 years ago. It might be that newer, cheaper MRI "stores" have popped up without me noticing.

[merh]

12. Where is "here"?

I've never heard of a place that only charges $600 for an MRI, please tell me where "here" is.

[postulater]

17. Here's one place

<http://www.smartchoicemri.com/>

This was started by a radiologist who realized the hospitals charged more for MRIs so they could cost-share for other losses. By not having the expenses of the hospital, a free-standing place was able to lower their rates.

Now we are seeing other free-standing places lower their rates also. I have had competitors come to my office with their new rate sheets.

I, of course, offer choices to patients. But people sure seem to like a $600 scan over the $3000 one when they may have to pay for it.

(I have no financial connection to this or any other MRI place.)

[merh]

21. I wish that group was in my state.

What a wonderful thing to do to offer affordable MRI's.

[JackintheGreen]

10. I had one in India this spring

on the same day the doctor asked me to get one. I had to pay $8.

Two weeks ago, back in the States, I threw out my back and had to see a doctor. Cost me $25 just for the privilege of hobbling into his office. I'm afraid my insurance won't cover it, but I'm still waiting to find out.

[spanone]

11. shhh, you'll ruin all the right-wing talking points....

[SidDithers]

13. Kingston? No way you got parking for $6 in Toronto...

Hope everything is OK :hi:

Sid

[irislake]

25. Peterborough

I'd take a taxi rather than pay for parking at a Toronto hosiptal.

[yankeeinlouisiana]

14. A friend of mine needs an MRI.

She doesn't have health insurance and is going to a charity-run hospital. Wait time: 3 months.

[blueworld]

16. My best wishes "aboot" your health

Seriously. I had an MRI on my head about 8 years ago (head empty, health great) and waited 4 weeks for the appointment & nearly a week later for the results. Had the best insurance & still had 25% out-of-pocket although to be fair the parking was free (sarcasm). Hope you're doing great.

[Orsino]

18. Nice post, Hitler.

(plus obligatory note that your health care system is the envy of any informed American)

[goclark]

20. What a relief that must be for you ~

Here we can wait weeks for an appointment and sit for hours in the doctor's office while the "Phamas in short skirts" get in to see the doctor.

The Pharma Reps bring fancy lunches for the doctors and their staff members while the patients wait.

Edit to add: I have BC/BS and Medicare and live in Los Angeles

The doctors are now charging $50 - $300 if you miss your appointment. You must call within 24 hours to not be charged.

[Alameda]

23. I had to wait 3 months to see a dermotologist...and I paid

a $30 co pay for my insurance that costs $300 a month.............and that was after the mandatory visit to a primary care physician who was needed to refer me to a specialist...and that was another $30 co pay. No tests, no fancy equipment...just to see them and for them to see me.

I envy your system. Congratulations on having such a nice system. I wish we had something like it here.

[Selatius]

26. If you're rich and live in the US, your wait time wouldn't be two weeks. More like 1 or 2 days.

Our system is better than yours!!!! :sarcasm:

[democrat2thecore]

27. Through an ER you can get it right away in USA - you just end up bankrupt -nt

[JohnWxy]

28. recommended, bookmarked ..I want to be able to use this is arguments with idiots. THANK YOU!

[JohnWxy]

29. recommended, bookmarked ..I want to be able to use this is arguments with idiots. THANK YOU!

[Zorra]

31. One doctor ordered my MRI, then the insurance company practitioner took

over the case before I had the MRI. (The OK for the MRI took 3 weeks)

The insurance company practitioner promptly cancelled the MRI, telling me it was unnecessary, and she didn't want to waste money. She told me to do stretching exercises and to walk on my injured leg.

A week later I was in a great deal of pain, and returned to the practitioner. She rescheduled the MRI.

A week after that I had the MRI. Turns out I had a partially torn achilles tendon and a ruptured muscle. I had further damaged the tendon because the practitioner told me to do stretching exercises and to walk on my injured leg.

3 1/2 months later my leg is still not normal. Fortunately, I am under the care of an excellent orthopedic specialist now.

A perfect example of the stupidity and warped value system of insurance company style healthcare in the US.

Too bad for me that we don't have Canadian style single payer healthcare in the US.

If we did, my leg would be fine, and I probably would have had a whole lot more fun this past summer.

[moondust]

32. YOU LIE!

:rofl:

[Hansel]

33. We belong to a coop in MN.

My daughter scheduled an MRI this morning for Monday. This will be her 2nd MRI scheduled within days of the referral.

I had 2 same day MRI's in June. To be fair, I was in the hospital.

I can't believe these long waits for MRIs. I had one last year on my knee that I had to wait 3 days to get.

All of these MRIs had 15 minutes or less waiting room times. My daughter pays $20 co-payments, I pay $30 because I have a higher tier plan (one of them thar Cadillac plans I guess).

[HipChick]

34. my dr ordered a breast MRI, my insurance refused to pay it, unless I had cancer..

Now how else where they supposed to find out whether it was cancer or not?...x-ray vision?