Shopping for lower prices

Shop for your services/procedures.

I really thought in the same city, that two hospitals would have comparable prices on the same procedure.

One of them charges my insurance about $4900 for an Axumin PET scan.
The other hospital only charges about $2100 for that same scan.
The difference is due to the two hospital's contracts with my insurance company.
To say the least, I was blown away!!
With the first hospital my out of pocket would have been about $2400, and the other $1850.
This discrepancy is a result of both the original charge and my deductible and the 20% I'd be paying.
Needless to say, yet I will. I'm canceling my appt with the first and scheduling with the second.

Medical billing is a mystery. I wonder if despite the different billed amount, both hospitals end up getting the same payment from your insurance company.

I see in today's mail, my local hospital billed my insurer $368 for a PSA and T test. The insurer allowed a payment of $53.85 - out of which I owed a $10 co-pay.

It IS really pretty crazy. In my area, just going five miles north or south I can get a range for a contrast pelvic MRI between 1000 and 12000$. Things like my high sensitivity psa test can range from 6.5$ out of pocket to 265$ out of pocket. It really is pretty crazy the variance between what can be billed for the SAME medical billing code, what is approved as acceptable amount from ones insurance and then the out of pocket one is going to owe for the co-insurance fee.