MRI for $3000 or $350 -- Price matters

If you think there’s no reason to shop for health care, check out this doctor’s blog post – her patients were skipping needed care because of high costs, even her own mother. http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/04/price-transparency-improve-patient-care.html

Affordable care was available, as the examples here point out, but it’s hard to find prices and comparison shop for health care.

Dr. Leslie Ramirez decided to help out, at least if you live in the Chicago area. She’s compiling her own list of affordable care providers. Wouldn’t it be great if every town had a list like this: http://www.leslieslist.org/index.php

Skip that $3000 MRI and get one for $350, as long as your doctor says it will do the job. It takes a little legwork, but for somebody like me with a high-deductible health plan, there’s an immediate payoff.

Even for those who have only a $20 co-pay for unlimited MRIs, CTs etc., if we all did this, we would be shrinking the number of our health dollars needed, bringing down the cost overall. That’s the power we have as consumers.

It’s like that saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping! And believe me, shopping for health care prices can be tough, but I dug up a few more places to get started. -- Susan at Regence

MRI: http://www.comparemricost.com/
Common health screenings: http://www.costhelper.com/cost/health/

See if your hospital has information like this:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/10/health.care.price.comparison/index.html
Find a low-cost clinic: http://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/
Check local community and information referral services: http://www.airs.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1

Compare quality too: HHS.-- www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov
Medication – comparative effectiveness and cost: RegenceRx

Some states and regions are helping consumers find good health care:
Puget Sound (Wash.) Health Alliance – community check-up
http://www.wacommunitycheckup.org/?p=home
Oregon hospital costs: http://www.oregon.gov/OHPPR/RSCH/comparehospitalcosts.shtml
Provider quality: http://www.partnerforqualitycare.org/

Have you noticed you can put "e-" in front of just about anything, and we all know what that means? We do so much online today – (r)e-tail, e-zines, e-trading and e-banking. And now there’s e-patient.

New research says that 61 percent of us go online for health information from trusted websites. We research symptoms to see if we need to a doctor, and then look up the diagnosis and treatment after we go to the doctor. About one in five e-patients interact with each other online, comparing experiences to broaden their understanding at Patients Like Me or e-patients.net

Whether it’s a simple diagnosis or a complex life-changing condition, being an e-patient helps us be effective and educated about what we can do to support our own health. I’ve talked in this blog about my own experience with looking online and replacing prescription meds with over-the-counter remedies – it was really empowering to do that myself because these options weren’t on my doctor’s radar.

People with the most experience in the health care system – those with chronic conditions – are really active e-patients, because they know how hard it is to figure out the treatment routine that works for them. They have a lot of experience challenging the system and asking “why” and “how much.”

As we are all paying more for health care these days, here’s another online resource for the e-patient: our Cost Generator, so we can be prepared with the real price tag of medical procedures.

If you've got an e-patient story, please let us hear about it at our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/TheRealCost.

— Susan with Regence