I am pissed at healthcare and billing practices...........

I recently had a brain MRI with and without contrast. The office where I had it done billed my insurance company over $2000. With contracted prices, etc. the insurance company will pay $489 and my responsibility is $951.

I checked the Healthcare Blue Book pricing for this procedure in my zip code and find that it is $771. This is for the procedure and interpretation.

The Blue Book shows that the pricing for an MRI without contrast is $536 and if I had one with contrast it would be $581.

I was charged three times the Blue Book fair price and which according to Blue Book Price includes the total amount for both physician (interpretation) and technical (imaging) fees. Sometimes the test will be billed in two parts but they should add up to the listed price.

I've already started my letter to the office requesting that they either resubmit the bill at the lower price, or subtract the $489 paid by insurance from the $771 leaving me with a payment due of $282. Wish me luck on that.