Shopping for Health Care

[DeepSouth]

Recently I had to have 2 CT scans, the first was kind of a rush and the Dr. ordered it thru the hospital he worked for. My part of the cost was $1800, the second he ordered really was because he didn't specify the first correctly. Anyway, I decided to shop around and found the same exact test in a local town for $365 if paid up front. A little further drive but no bad. So anyway just wanted to mention, I probably never would have questioned this if I were not in a HSA that I'm managing for my retirement in a few years.

 

[athena53]

Thanks for the cautionary tale- I'm glad you were able to find that information. I'm on Medicare now but found that it was VERY hard to get any decent cost estimates before treatment when I had a High Deductible plan. I changed providers for my colonoscopy because the one I'd used previously worked through a hospital and I couldn't find out what the hospital would charge. Used a specialist recommended by my PCP who worked at a free-standing clinic instead. (It was going to be classified as diagnostic, so not covered as prevention.)

 

[MRG]

My prior PCP was part of a large public company that did healthcare.

He would never send me for MRIs or CTs at the hospital, always went to a free standing clinic. I had one done in the hospital and yeah it was twice as much at the hospital.