MRI Bill Sprung On Me?

Our health care billing "system" in the USA works on the principle "get all you can from whoever you can". The patient that has good health insurance or is rich enough to self insure and pay the bill themselves, get it socked to them, and hard. Supposedly this to cover the cost of those that do not pay or cannot pay. Normally an MRI runs around $3,000. The person you spoke to just did not do her job. Any and all costs should have been made known to you prior to the procedure. You should discuss this "oversight" with her supervisor. They may be happy to make a payment arrangement with you. My brother in-law recently had spinal surgery to correct degenerated discs (2). At the same time a minor abdominal hernia was corrected. I stress the minor. The hospital bill. $147,000! The doctors $30,000 for the spinal surgery, $2,500 for the hernia. $3,000 for the anesthesiologist. The operations were done in the same operating room and took a total of around 3 hours. Then there was the physical therapy. The total cost ended up around $200,000. You can only imagine what open heart surgery would cost. After all their insurances, which included medicare and a private insurer paid, they had to take out a mortgage on their home to pay their part of the bills. It makes you want to scream for national health care! Right now the hospital and doctors can and will charge whatever the traffic will bear......usually more. I apologize for the long answer but hearing stories such as yours and my brother-in-law's really pisses me off. Sorry for venting on you. Good luck to you!