Echocardiogram Cost - Buyer Experiences and Price Information

I have an HMO. I was referred to a doctor at UC Denver medical center. I checked to make sure he was under my plan, and he was. My plan paperwork said any tests done while at the doctor's office would be covered. However, I continue to get bills saying they won't cover the costs because they were done at a non-plan facility. I have over $3000 in medical costs I have to pay for one office visit! What good is having insurance? I purposely chose an HMO so I would know my costs up front. I have never had to pay this much in medical bills, even for several days in the hospital as an inpatient. I tried to negotiate a lower price, and they said that I already had been given a discount.

Cardiology group joined Univ. of Louisville physician's group since the last checkup. Bills with codes:
Code 0480 (Kosair) echo $2437 after insurance adjustment.
CPT 93303-26 (MD office) - $585
CPT 93320-26 (MD office) - $410
CPT 93325-26 (MD office) $290.
***The tricky thing is that the previous year the Echo was done in the MD's office. The MD codes and prices WERE EXACTLY THE SAME!! The ONLY difference is that I did not have to pay the hospital for an echo that was done 1 door down from the MD's office. How is this not fraud?? Someone please explain.

I took my child to see a doctor due to heart pain, he said he would like to do an ultrasound. Thinking that ultrasound costs only a few hundred dollars, I said ok, go ahead. The bill came, it was $5,913.81. The insurance negotiated down to half the cost, so I was on the hook for $2,956.91, paid entirely by me. I've never spent this much without doing any research. If the doctor it was an echocardiagram, I would have asked how much it cost, and research to see if it costs less in another hospital or clinic, before doing the test. And from all the comments here, this is by far THE MOST expensive one listed.

My husband was experiencing heart palpitations and extremely high blood pressure due to stress. My mother-in-law whose been an RN for 40+ years referred him to her cardiologist. He went for 1 visit which resulted in 5 claims on my insurance. We have a high deductible plan so the insurance company made the adjustment to what was billed but we are still on the hook for the remainder. Had my husband known before hand the cost of this Echocardiogram then he would have declined. We've received 4 other bills all in the 180 - 230 range for the same office visit.

My 17 yr old was experiencing exercise intolerance, getting out of breath after swimming. Got a cardiac consult which included about 1.5 hours: transthoracic echo, EKG, MD consult: result: normal and out of shape. Billed insurance about 4000: shock! Insurance adjustment about 2000. Paid 2000 out of pocket, seemed excessive and was not informed of high cost of echo, which took about 20 min. of tech time, then MD interpretation. We did complain and it is pending.
**If possible, I think get referral to an imaging center, which will have lower prices.

Thank goodness for the military because I wouldn't have been able to afford it. I wanted a second opinion but it looks like I won't be getting it.

My portion is $1486.05. This test was performed on son because he could not pass physical for baseball in college. Turns out it was stress and anxiety from beginning college. Pretty expensive to find out what we already knew. I hate our healthcare system. You can never figure out what they are billing you for. I can imagine how much the older folks have paid that they should not have because they do not understand all the jargon. Shameful.

I did not know that the tech was a member of the hospital ,before they were dr office employees

Felt high. Was a transthoracic. No stress component until bill arrived.

Routine echocardiogram cost was a big surprise. I never dreamed it would be $4209. I received a 20% discount for paying my copay at the time of service. It would have been $631.35. I do not know what my insurance company will pay.

I was with the technician all of 15 minutes. The other 5 was undressing and dressing. This was done at a medical center--NOT a hospital. Just a little clinic. And they billed it as Duke University Hospital Encounter. My portion 562.75. CRAZY!!!! I would have never dreamed it would have been over $600 to begin with.

I was with the technician all of 15 minutes. The other 5 was undressing and dressing. This was done at a medical center--NOT a hospital. Just a little clinic. And they billed it as Duke University Hospital Encounter. My portion 562.75. CRAZY!!!! I would have never dreamed it would have been over $600 to begin with.

This is really disturbing. So my son got rheumatic fever. A dr at UC Davis did an echo TWICE, and I paid a whopping $60 for the copay. Those echos cost roughly $800 each, which they billed to the insurance and both were covered. Fast forward one year, we moved to Oregon, and I took my son in for the annual checkup his first dr. prescribed, and I paid $65 (copay) then get a bill in the mail for $1617.25. ??? People, this is like going to a restaurant and in addition to the $65 food bill, you get slapped with a $1617.25 bill to cover the lights, chairs, tables, pens, aprons, pots, pans, and parking lot. Unfathomable that one system could manage to bill it so the insurance we ALREADY fork out $800/month for could help us out, and another one refuses. We applied for a reduction- didn't qualify because we 'haven't lived here long enough'. These things sure would have been nice to know BEFORE the echo was done. Sooooo tired of being jacked around by healthcare systems. It's so messed up.

As a scheduler for cardiovascular services in a hospital in Colorado, people ask all the time how much a procedure is going to cost before they schedule an appointment. You are always allowed to ask and find out how much it will cost whether you have private insurance, public insurance (Medicare, Medicaid), or are paying for it out of pocket. Our hospital has a "Costline" that we can transfer you to and they will give you all the costs. Some procedures have a cost for the procedure PLUS a cost for the physician reading the results (especially radiological studies). So always be proactive and ask for a cost plus what your insurance will cover!

Wow. Was totally unprepared when I agreed to have my daughter have a Echo. Was done at the office visit, about 30 minutes. Total charge for procedure and MD reading (not including office visit or ECG) was 3183.00. Having not met our deductible... we pay $2257.00 Wish I would have known of the costs. I would have shopped around for prices first.

I have high blood pressure and was sent for this test. After seeing this bill my blood pressure skyrocketed. My Insurance paid $5660.00 After adjustments I'm on the hook for $300.00 What a rip off for a 20min, test with a tech who had no experience, just received her cert.

My Family Dr recommended an echocardiagram. A regular Thoracic type. I called ahead of time and was told the whole thing would cost about 600.00 and
my cost would be about 100.00 Frick billed be for over 500.00 and when I said i wasn't paying they only lowered it to 300.00 Never said if the test was good, bad, otherwise, if any thing looked bad.
Now the same Dr is recommending another test + a 4-hr stress test and acting like he KNOWS ALL! In 2004 when I failed the stress test, the same outfit did a triple by-pass on me. I don't think I ever saw any good from it. My chest bone never healed to this day and I've never passed a stress test before or after the surgery so why pay for another echo and stress test I'll never let anyone cut me again anyway and I told them but they won't leave me alone. They're indicating that if i don't get the tests, they'll stop giving me the prescriptions they've been prescribing for years to help these problems. Sounds like Excela Health wants MONEY!

Hospital just called and said our 20% co-pay would be $2300. Cost of echocardiogram: $11,500. Unbelievable!

The Echo was performed by a tech in about 15 minutes. An EKG was performed by another tech in about 5 minutes. I waited for each for over an hour and did not get paid. Total charge was $2037 with no coding, no explanation. The insurer discount (Medicare) was $1600 (???) and Medicare paid about $300. The hospital says I owe $108. The U.S. health care system is run by crooks and is a cruel joke.

ridiculous

Original bill was an outrageous $4,4430.00 and gave the insurance a $1,100.75 discount and was still an outrageous $3,332.25 for this 20-25 minute test. This one appears to be a higher cost than any I have seen anywhere. Guess I am lucky to have to pay only 10%

Overpriced. Compared to what I see here. I feel violated when I look at the bill. They should tell you costs before they administer tests.

$1598 for ultrasound, + $386 for radiologist. Provider wrote off $216 because charges exceeded what insurance allowed, so final bill was $1768.

FYI: Medicare reimburses $390 for an outpatient echocardiogram you can check for yourself the identifying CPT code is 93307 and the APC payment is $390.49. There is a regional multiplier to help for different reimbursement levels for different locations but $390 is baseline.

I haven't received a bill from my insurance on what I will have to pay out of pocket, but the 2,148.00 was the cash cost, I agree outrageous for 25 min of ultrasound - I just hope it's worth it!

It's just absurd you guys pay so much for an wchocardiogram! In Italy we can pay 30-40€ in a hospital and a maximum of 70-100€ if we want to pay a private doctor!!!

My daughter needed a echocardiogram and they charged 2103.00 just for the echo and 854 for the dr consult and another 122.00 for and EKG. It's just wrong. The doctor was in there maybe 10 minuets. I was figuring maybe 500-1000 for the procedure and 150-200 for the doctor consult. Out portion was 2309.25.

This seems just outrageous for approx 25 minutes of ultrasound work.

I was billed $750.00 for my echo testing only because I was taken by ambulance and admitted to the nearest hospital. My regular hospital was miles away and the paramedics said I needed treatment right away. I'm glad they took me. My life is worth it!