Example
Someone was loading a small trailer with wood. He tripped and fell, hitting his head. The result was a sore head and a bloodshot eye. Someone else suggested that he go to a doctor to "have it looked at."
The doctor ordered a MRI. This is approximately a $2,000 test. Someone read the test and thought is showed an aneurism. He was told that he should go immediately to the Level I Trauma Center about 50 miles away.
The Trauma Center staff did their own MRI and other tests, about $8,000 more. They told him that they could not find any indication of a aneurism and all he had was a minor bruise which would heal by itself in a few days.
While comforting to know the he did not have an aneurism. The mistake by the first doctor costs his insurance company an unnecessary $8,000, which is ultimately passed on to us the consumer.
First of all doctors are being overly cautious to protect themselves from frivolous lawsuits. It's no money out of their pocket to order numerous tests to protect themselves from the lawsuits. We need to protect the doctors so they can treat us with common sense and experience.
Secondly, a MRI should not cost $2,000. This is a frequently used test and a real profit generator for the facility. Let's get it down to $500.
Thirdly, the additional $8,000 should have been absorbed between the two facilities. The reality is much of the cost is just the high fees paid to the doctors involve and for test profit margins to pay the high cost of malpractice insurance.
The worst thing about this is many people do not have health insurance and may have chosen not to go. In this case that would not have been a problem, but it could have just as easily been something worse.
If an uninsured person had gone, they would now be looking at $10,000 in medical bills of which $8,000 was completely unnecessary. If they couldn't afford to pay $1,500 a month, how can they pay off $10,000???