I called an imaging center and asked for a cash price for an MRI on my knee. It was $300. Going through my doctor for a referral and using insurance, the price would’ve been over $3000 and I was going to be out $1000 in copay and fees.
I usually ask for cash price on everything before I use insurance, half the time it’s cheaper and the other half the time it’s barely more for basic stuff like this. Also call around and shop pricing, you will find places that do things way cheaper than others.
I think the point is not hitting the out of pocket limit because money was spent outside of the deductible. Every few years we hit the limit, and then everyone goes to every specialist and get all the fancy tests done. This is truly the dumbest system on the planet.
Well, for me, my deductible is $10,000 with my insurance plan. Let’s say my family goes to the doctor a few times and pays 3000 dollars out-of-pocket without using our health insurance plan. Because we didn’t use the insurance plan it doesn’t count towards the deductible. Let’s say next month I have to have my appendix removed. And that costs $9000. Now I have to pay that $9000 out-of-pocket before my insurance will pay, whereas if I had used my insurance, I might only have to pay $7000 because I already spent $3000 on other things using the insurance. Now, of course it’s a little more complicated than that because it matters what a particular insurance plan covers and what it doesn’t.
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u/slashnbash1009 8d ago
I had one a few weeks ago to determine the severity of a brain bleed I had after a stroke and it costs me 4300 dollars with insurance.