If you are uninsured or are insured but have to make a substantial coinsurance payment, it’s worth it to shop around for medical tests. The difference in price from one facility to another could be 20 to 60-percent —or more.
My friend Ingrid in California had tried everything to relieve shooting sciatic pain that started when she was pregnant. Now she needed an MRI to determine if she had a ruptured disk or if something else was causing her sciatic pain. Since she’s a shopper by nature, Ingrid decided to shop around. She called two different places and one charged $4000 for an MRI. But another place, just as close to her house, charged just $1500! That’s a $2,500 savings, which is 63-percent.
And that was not an isolated case. Across the country in New Jersey, I was doing a savings makeover for a family and the mom needed a routine colonoscopy. That’s expensive and the family had to satisfy a high deductible before their health insurance kicked in, so this was their own money that would be paying for this. So we called 10 facilities within 5 miles of their home. And guess what: we found one that was $3,980 less than the rest! Now THAT’s how I like to save money!