[RVV]

To all my fellow Americans, do you ladies and gentleman know how much would it cost to get a heart MRI (cardiac function and morphology MRI to be exact) in USA if you don't have health insurance? I wanted to get it done, but in my city we only have something like 5 of them for a population of 5.5 million, so it is fairly difficult to get it done. Doctors here do not send you for one, unless they think you might have ARVD or something along these lines. So I was thinking of taking a pleasant road trip to Buffalo or Rochester, in order to take a full advantage of the wonderful capitalist health care system of the United States. Pay cash and you don't have to wait for a year....sounds too good to be true in Canada. Anyways, how much do you think it might cost? Thank you in advance!

[CMoore416]

I have no clue!!! Maybe google it?

[DaniRae]

Wow I am not sure either. Either that or call the clinic that would preform it for you and get a quote.

[dr461]

Expensive outside of insurance. An echocardiogram in a clinical setting is $1500, so try and guess the cost of a Cardiac MRI. I doubt you'd get more information from an MRI over an echo with doppler.

wonderful capitalist health care system of the United States.

You must be kidding on that one! lol

[RVV]

$1500 for an echo? Wow....for that money I can go on an all-inclusive vocation to Varadero, than travel to Havana and get an MRI there and I would still have $500 left to spend.

For some bizarre reason I was under the impression that MRI scans are like $500 in the States. I guess, I grossly overestimated the ability of the free market competition to keep the health-care prices low.

I will try to do my own research to find out, but I have to admit I found your posts a bit discouraging...

Yeah, the capitalist system thing was a bit of a joke....

[RVV]

MRI is a lot more sensitive of a test than echo. The reason I want to get an MRI is because my PVCs started after a horrid infection I was battling for 6 months, on and off. Based on what I have read, something like that can, in rare instances, leave small scars on your heart, which are not visible on the echo, but MRI can pick them up. I talked to my cardio about it, and he said that it is possible, but he still would not send me to get an MRI. I think that Ontario Ministry of Health has strict criteria for eligibility for MRI testing and if you don't meet it a doctor can't send you for one. Same thing applies to getting to refereed to an electrophysiologist, I think you need to have some seriously debilitating or life threatening arrhythmia to see one, and than you would probably have to wait for a decade or two to get in.

[Chaoticdopey]

i had an hour long mri done of my spine after a car accident, it only came out to alittle over $600, i think an echo is more expensive, but then again it all depends on what part of your body the mri is being done

[dr461]

Originally Posted by Chaoticdopey

i had an hour long mri done of my spine after a car accident, it only came out to alittle over $600, i think an echo is more expensive, but then again it all depends on what part of your body the mri is being done

You have insurance. If you self-pay, try getting an MRI for that amount. Just had one done on my left knee and they billed the insurance company a lot more for it than that. Try $1950. @RVV, THe "cheap scans" are ones done in a mobile scan machine by companies designed to separate you from your money. They are not medically accurate, nor will any doctor find them useable, nor acceptable. They are quick and dirty scans.

[Chaoticdopey]

Originally Posted by dr461

You have insurance. If you self-pay, try getting an MRI for that amount. Just had one done on my left knee and they billed the insurance company a lot more for it than that. Try $1950. @RVV, THe "cheap scans" are ones done in a mobile scan machine by companies designed to separate you from your money. They are not medically accurate, nor will any doctor find them useable, nor acceptable. They are quick and dirty scans.

i have no insurance im just awesome, and i was in a mri office, not an RV

[jkfrench]

My daughter had an MRI on her knee after a skiing accident and after my insurance paid their portion I still owed $1,200.