In California, a magnetic resonance imaging test, or MRI, can cost anywhere from $255 to $6,000. Either end of that price range can be tough to afford, depending on a patient’s income and insurance plan.
Patients, however, have one means to offset the costs of an MRI. If their medical situation allows it, they can seek outpatient MRI services, and avoid the additional costs and requirements that hospitalization entails. Outpatient MRIs are typically performed in freestanding imaging facilities – radiology or imaging centers that are not affiliated with hospitals. Outpatients can go to these facilities with the necessary paperwork or referrals from their physicians, submit to an MRI scan, and return home within a single day. As that suggests, these centers offer outpatients the luxury of saved time, as well as expenses.
Additional treatment aid
With more spending power, patients can take advantage of an MRI’s benefits possibly more than once. After all, MRIs are a useful tool not only for identifying conditions, illnesses, and other health issues. MRIs can track the trajectory of a disease. By diagramming the structure of bones, muscles, or organs, they can also show if patients positively respond to their prescribed treatments.
For example, the scans can show how well certain tissues have healed, arteries cleared, or cysts shrunk. They can be instrumental in reversing, enhancing, or continuing the course of treatment – and ensuring a patient’s good health.
Outpatient scenarios
If a patient can submit to an MRI without requiring hospitalization, he or she may not be in immediate danger of having a serious health issue. Some doctors only recommend MRIs as a precaution.
Depending on the body part they are having scanned, outpatients or their doctors can expect scans to show any of the following:
● Muscles and/or bones – tears, fractures, spinal disk abnormalities, arthritis, scoliosis
● Brain – concussions, aneurysms, dementia
● Abdomen – cirrhosis, abscess, gallstones
These are only some of the possible findings. Even at outpatient facilities, only trained radiologists can interpret the results. Patients still need to return to their specialists or primary care physicians to assess their medical condition.
Sources:
In California, That MRI Will Cost You $255 – Or Maybe $6,221. NPR, November 17, 2014.
Hospital-based versus Freestanding Outpatient Imaging Services. Radiology Business, May 5, 2011.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) – Body. RadiologyInfo.org.
Glendale MRI Institute 