@Iglooo – not political, IMHO. I am always intrigued by the wide range of discounts off billed charges. Some services are paid at almost the full billed rates while others have the R&C knocked down by 75% before the insurance company considers anything.
Interesting that your MRI would cost the same as my ultrasound when the MRI must take more time. Geographic adjustments may come into play also, as I am in a very high cost area, but I still would have expected a larger differential.
There are some weird things going on with insurance companies. My husband has had three ultrasound assisted aspirations of his knee. Each time the insurance company never paid about $1100 (though supposedly it was knocked down to $800) for the ultrasound fee, yet the hospital never billed us. When I talked to the insurance company, apparently there was an agreement that for this procedure, the hospital would write it off every time. I have no idea why! But if we had one of those consumer driven plans, where we pay the costs out of a pot of money, I’ll bet you the hospital would have billed US for that!
I am sure they would have billed you for that if you were paying and your cost higher. But my bet is that they recoup the money somewhere else overcharging. This brings up the issue of group negotiating power through insurance. Is that more effective than letting each individual health consumer compare shopping for their health service? You would think a little research can easily determine which.
Ya, I use to pay a small,fortune for mammograms. I was encouraged to,do more thorough mammograms, but waited until I was on Medicare. I was fortunate.
If you have dense breasts, consider asking for a 3-D mammogram (also called digital tomosynthesis). According to a study at Duke, the accuracy of early breast cancer detection in dense breast tissue for 3-D mammos and MRIs are about the same.
The price of 3-D mammo is much less than a MRI. (Locally, it adds about $50-65 to cost of screening mammogram.) Also locally, 3-D mammos don’t require a referral. You can request one at the time of screening.
I had my first 3-D mammo 4 years ago when they first became available since I have dense breast tissue. I ended up having two biopsies (one in each breast; one biopsy had lingering complications) for (very) small masses not picked by previous regular mammos. Both were benign. But now that they have a good baseline on me, I haven’t had another false positive finding on the 3-D mammo.
BTW, strong familial history of breast cancer. D2 was diagnosed with IDC at age 25.
Thank you @WayOutWestMom I just learned my hospital offers the 3D “tomo” and picking up any insurance shortfall so no co-pay.