When a patient in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, used her insurance provider’s online pricing tool to obtain the price of a breast MRI, she thought it would at least be close. It wasn’t.
UnitedHealthcare’s price estimator told the patient, 51-year-old Michelle Smith, her examination would cost her something in the range of $783 to $1,375 out-of-pocket. But when she got the bill, according to a report from the Philadelphia Inquirer, it read $3,237.
“What good is a cost calculator if it’s not accurate?” she asked, as quoted by the report. “I’d be better off with no information than false information.”
The Inquirer has been keeping a close eye on the healthcare pricing beat for quite some time, as evidenced by numerous stories it has published on the topic in the past.
For the full story, including what happened to that price after the Inquirer reached out to UnitedHealthcare, click the link below.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.