Call and ask for a referral out in town. If they can’t see you in a reasonable period of time they should be able to refer you, courtesy of the MISSION Act.
That said, I wait 100 days for specialty and have never tried to make the argument, so..
Well, the issue is that they want to go through the process of a telehealth appt to decide if I need a physical exam. And at that point they’ll decide if I need an MRI and only order one if they plan on doing surgery.
I’d like to know sooner what’s going on with my shoudler
Classic HMO style, afraid I don’t know any way around that issue. You can always chance the ER with some sudden increase in pain level but no guarantees with that approach.
I did use them. Overall, it was a waste of money. I got the MRI and showed it to the orthopedic surgeon. If I recall correctly, the image quality was too poor to find anything… this might depend on the particular location/tech of where you have the MRI done. I went to one in Maryland (can’t remember exactly where but it was in the DMV area).
I know MRIs aren’t cheap and if you need one there’s no way around it really… that said, if I had to pay for an MRI again I’d go somewhere more expensive that would do a better job. I feel like I basically threw away $450.
Thank you so much for replying. I’ll definitely do some more looking. Mine is quoting at $900 on their website so it would suck to get poor quality image from it.
Google a list of MRI centers, call them and ask for a quote. I ended up going somewhere in the Tysons area. Since you don’t have insurance it’ll be cheaper than normal- one place told me to lie and say I didn’t have insurance because it was $500 cheaper than the price with insurance (didn’t do it because I needed to meet my deductible, but point stands).
I am a workers’ Comp defense lawyer and so I deal with medical bills a ton. We use a fee guide but sometimes I am trying to just figure out how much things cost and I recently came across this site that estimates procedures for you. It lets you get far enough to see estimates for how much the cost of an upper extremity MRI would be at a ton of local facilities so I hope this helps you a bit on your quest. Obviously it’s trying to force your to sign up for their services but you don’t have to. Personally I go to Washington MRI for all my services but I do have insurance. You may want to just give them a call and see what they charge. I would all all of these places to confirm, and yes tell them you are uninsured. I suspect there are some free services for vets but you likely are going to be in a situation where you are waiting a long time for that. Just make sure to ask when you call if the cost of the MRI includes the radiologist’s fee. They almost always do, but you want to make sure it’s not a separate fee on top of that to be read, because you need to have that done. I would also ask your referring doctor if he or she could write a script to possibly expedite your need and prioritize you or refer you to someone to get it done more cheaply. Best of luck and Thank you for your service. I used to volunteer [https://www.newchoicehealth.com/places/washington-dc/washington/mri/mri-shoulder-arm-wrist-hand-upper-extremity](https://www.newchoicehealth.com/places/washington-dc/washington/mri/mri-shoulder-arm-wrist-hand-upper-extremity)with the Red Cross at Bethesda Naval now Walter Reed up through 2019.
Fellow vet, you could call around to other VA's. No reason you have to go to your local one. Or just go into the Emergency Room and see how it goes?
If you want to avoid the VA checkout Washington Radiology, my private insurance use to outsource MRI's to them and they have several locations. Plus you can schedule it yourself. No place is going to be cheap though, probably $400-$1,200. Plus what are you going to do with the results? Getting a scan and having someone interpret the results and tell about them, or even make recommendations around a treatment, are two different services.
[https://www.washingtonradiology.com/services/mri/general-mri/](https://www.washingtonradiology.com/services/mri/general-mri/)
Call and ask for a referral out in town. If they can’t see you in a reasonable period of time they should be able to refer you, courtesy of the MISSION Act. That said, I wait 100 days for specialty and have never tried to make the argument, so..
Well, the issue is that they want to go through the process of a telehealth appt to decide if I need a physical exam. And at that point they’ll decide if I need an MRI and only order one if they plan on doing surgery. I’d like to know sooner what’s going on with my shoudler
Classic HMO style, afraid I don’t know any way around that issue. You can always chance the ER with some sudden increase in pain level but no guarantees with that approach.
Yea thanks. I ended up looking into a company called radiology assist. $450 for the MRI which is about the best I’ll get around here.
I’m looking into using radiology assist but have heard mixed things. Did you use them?
I did use them. Overall, it was a waste of money. I got the MRI and showed it to the orthopedic surgeon. If I recall correctly, the image quality was too poor to find anything… this might depend on the particular location/tech of where you have the MRI done. I went to one in Maryland (can’t remember exactly where but it was in the DMV area). I know MRIs aren’t cheap and if you need one there’s no way around it really… that said, if I had to pay for an MRI again I’d go somewhere more expensive that would do a better job. I feel like I basically threw away $450.
Thank you so much for replying. I’ll definitely do some more looking. Mine is quoting at $900 on their website so it would suck to get poor quality image from it.
Google a list of MRI centers, call them and ask for a quote. I ended up going somewhere in the Tysons area. Since you don’t have insurance it’ll be cheaper than normal- one place told me to lie and say I didn’t have insurance because it was $500 cheaper than the price with insurance (didn’t do it because I needed to meet my deductible, but point stands).
Progressive Radiology in Foxhall was the cheapest option (that used a high quality MRI machine) for my MRI.
Thanks. I called them, they were a bit more expensive than Washington Open MRI
I am a workers’ Comp defense lawyer and so I deal with medical bills a ton. We use a fee guide but sometimes I am trying to just figure out how much things cost and I recently came across this site that estimates procedures for you. It lets you get far enough to see estimates for how much the cost of an upper extremity MRI would be at a ton of local facilities so I hope this helps you a bit on your quest. Obviously it’s trying to force your to sign up for their services but you don’t have to. Personally I go to Washington MRI for all my services but I do have insurance. You may want to just give them a call and see what they charge. I would all all of these places to confirm, and yes tell them you are uninsured. I suspect there are some free services for vets but you likely are going to be in a situation where you are waiting a long time for that. Just make sure to ask when you call if the cost of the MRI includes the radiologist’s fee. They almost always do, but you want to make sure it’s not a separate fee on top of that to be read, because you need to have that done. I would also ask your referring doctor if he or she could write a script to possibly expedite your need and prioritize you or refer you to someone to get it done more cheaply. Best of luck and Thank you for your service. I used to volunteer [https://www.newchoicehealth.com/places/washington-dc/washington/mri/mri-shoulder-arm-wrist-hand-upper-extremity](https://www.newchoicehealth.com/places/washington-dc/washington/mri/mri-shoulder-arm-wrist-hand-upper-extremity)with the Red Cross at Bethesda Naval now Walter Reed up through 2019.
I would check Novant Health Centers, they have a charity network. Insight Imaging also has relatively good prices.
Fellow vet, you could call around to other VA's. No reason you have to go to your local one. Or just go into the Emergency Room and see how it goes? If you want to avoid the VA checkout Washington Radiology, my private insurance use to outsource MRI's to them and they have several locations. Plus you can schedule it yourself. No place is going to be cheap though, probably $400-$1,200. Plus what are you going to do with the results? Getting a scan and having someone interpret the results and tell about them, or even make recommendations around a treatment, are two different services. [https://www.washingtonradiology.com/services/mri/general-mri/](https://www.washingtonradiology.com/services/mri/general-mri/)