I need a chest CT scan.
Local hospital: $7500
Sutter Roseville:$3500
Reno Diagnostic Imaging: $785
Open System Imaging (Chico): $320+$50 booking fee
On the one hand, how screwed is the system when the local place is 20 times more expensive than a place three hours away?
How screwed are we that we pay it?
Then, how would it be possible to sidestep the insurance/profitability end of things? As long as insurance companies are willing to pay for it, why would the hospitals charge less? And as long as we're too scared to go without insurance, why would the insurance companies not pay?
Scary stuff.
Makes your head want to explode, doesn't it? Also, it seems to me a smaller place, like Chico, would actually be more expensive because of less business. Supply and demand, my friend.
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