Hospital Raises Prices if You Are Uninsured

This Video is the True Story of My Wife's MRI. Our Family Pays for Healthcare Cash Pay... Not with Health Insurance.

The Hospital Wanted to Charge Her $4,034... Which is a 45% Discount Off of Billed Charges of $7,335.

Because I Work in Health Care and Health Insurance, I Knew That This Hospital Did Not Bill $7,335 for an MRI.

Turns Out the $7,335 is a 'National Average' of Billed Charges for This Type of MRI According to a Hospital Revenue Cycle Consulting Firm Called nthrive That the Hospital Uses.

I Don't Know How nthrive Came to That Amount. In My Experience With Hundreds of Hospitals Across the Country, I Have Not Seen $7,335 Be the Average Amount Billed for an MRI. That's Way Too High.

The Hospital Agreed that They Should Instead Bill Their Own Billed Charges and Not the Supposed 'National Average.'

The Hospital's MRI Billed Charges Were $3,849. After Applying a 45% Discount, the Final Cash Pay Price Was $2,117... about Half the Originally Quoted Price.

Whether or Not This Hospital Made an Honest Mistake, I Do Not Know, but Charging Different Amounts to Different Customers is Called 'Price Discrimination.' In Many Situations it is Illegal.

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[FreeMktMonkey]

This is absolutely insane! I got 2 MRIs last year, both paid by cash at Affordable MRI, Indianapolis, Indiana. Both were abdominal. The first was with and without contrast. I paid $399. The second was a follow up to the first, but did not require contrast. I paid $299. This INCLUDED interpretation/report! There should be many more independent imaging centers run by radiologists who buy a machine and rent some space. BTY, I drove from south central PA, so I had that expense, but I'd still do it with the higher fuel costs just to screw over the hospital system thieves!

[curtjohnson]

Thanks Dr. Bricker for pointing this out! Keep pushing and informing so others can avoid what is the great fleecing of America.

[brucelee]

Your a force to be reckoned with! Thanks for dropping some knowledge :)

[jdean]

Great video, Dr. Bricker! Thanks for sharing your experience in a way that 'common folks' can understand and apply the knowledge that you have shared.

[PS]

They refused to treat me for sepsis staph and e coli until my organs started failing and I was within 48 hrs of death.

[kraton]

That’s because bcbs literally tells hospitals the amount they will pay at max! Hospitals kinda don’t have a choice but to accept that because that’s ALL they are gonna get paid period

[drjay]

Wait, aren't they applying a dual fee schedule - one for insurance and one for cash? Isn't that illegal???

[ChristianKulak]

Could you have used the recently published Plan negotiated rate information from the Price Transparency rule to compare prices?

[tonystrazzara]

For someone in a faith-based sharing program, what's the incentive to actually call the provider and negotiate as you did? My understanding of these programs is that you pay the cash price upfront and get fully reimbursed by the sharing program on the back-end? So...what's it matter to you, whether you pay $4K or $2K?