An affiliate of Know the Costs® started developing outpatient imaging facilities in the mid-1990s. These sites were multi-modality, i.e. they incorporated a range of equipment and services: MRI, CT, X-ray, ultrasound, bone density, and used radiologists who also worked for the local hospitals.
Thousands of MDs, including hospital-employed MDs, referred patients to our affiliate’s facilities because they had hospital-equivalent quality but their prices (insurance rates) were a fraction of what the hospitals charged.
Over time, we realized the hospitals were getting substantial price increases from the big insurance carriers because the carriers had to have hospitals in their network. Patients (members) didn’t realize that the hospitals’ insurance rates permitted them to charge 300%+, or even more, for the same exams our sites performed!