Echocardiogram Cost - Buyer Experiences and Price Information

45 minutes spent with a tech. Billed for $3548. Down to just under $800 after the insurance limits. The tech is probably getting paid about $50k/year. Oh, and they are incredibly busy, because we had to wait more than 6 months for the appointment!

The scam waged on the patient is the ancillary providers found if they didn't belong to any insurance plans they could bill 100% even though the hospital or clinic is a plan participant. Not only did the oncologist charge me per visit, they charged me for blood test separately, at their office, and additional charges for a shot the next day. I hit all my deductibles the first day, I should have paid nothing. I also contracted MRSA the first day and because they caused additional treatment, my self-funded insurer got $80,000 back for the additional treatment, surgeries and hospitalizations, I lost all my savings and 401k, my job, and eventually my coverage. One cardiologist in Tampa was part of a plan, his brethren explained the benefit on none participation. As a participant he billed and was paid $500,000+ per year. As a non participant he billed Aetna and was paid for the same consults $2.3 Million the next year! The Tampa Bay Times listed it under the title, "Signs of Armmegedon

Our daughter has a bicuspid aortic valve that was detected at 7 months age. She is perfectly healthy and we showed the pedetrician/ cardiologist the report. But our pedetrician insisted we get it evaluated. Well we went after prelim. research thinking that our out of pocket expenses (with high deductible plan) would be within $1000. Lo and behold, the insurance company was billed $5704 for 30 mins transthoradic echocardiograph using 3 codes. My responsibility is $2800. Is this unethical, daylight robbery or what? For a diagnosis we already knew about. The cardiologist interpretation was charged another $594 ( insurance negotiated price is $286) What are my options here?

Went for echo at cardiologist's office. Hadn't met deductible and my BCBS estimate online was $408 done in doctor's office. Well, the cardiology office had been acquired by Mission Hospital so they charged their rate which was ~$1980. My insurance said I was responsible for $1208. Three times the rate and it was actually done inside the cardiologist's office. This has got to be unethical, why do the insurance companies pay at three times the rate for the same procedure? I am a retired physician and can't understand how they justify this.

$1947 was billed to my insurance, ended up being adjusted very slightly. I thought the 20 minute test would be $300 max after looking up my insurance benefits. I won't make that mistake again. Doesn't explain the absurdly high charge still. I know people were charged even more too and this really is robbery and a non transparent system. The machine may be expensive but a 20 min test and probably less than 20 min doctor interpretation does not cost this much.

Insane. Was referred by primary doctor to cardiologist, who was supposed to accept my insurance. Primary doctor was worried about my A-Fib that turned up during routine physical. Today, 2 weeks later, saw claim result online. My insurance pays nothing says out of network. code 93306 for $8,412.65. Now I have heart trouble after seeing amount not paid. So I am sure this will be a long, crazy fight to get the price down. Right now, my heart is ticking on overdrive because of this bill. Obviously, had I know this would have happened, I would have made other plans.

Ridiculous in a little town in kansas

Blue Shield covered $514.46 of $904.00.

I am a cardiac sonographer and i see soooo many patients getting UNNECESSARY echocardiograms and other tests. Please don't be stupid, question your doctor's, your insurance companies, do some Google research. There are only a few conditions where you need an echo every 6 months. And if you're in the hospital most hospitalists will order echoes just because, mostly there is no reason other than cardiac.

My son was having some issues during gym and feel tightness in his chest. Our family physician felt it would be a good idea to get an echo done. Being 17 and athletic we felt it was a good test to make sure. It was literally less than 30 minutes and I received a bill for $3,722.00 with my portion being $840.80. Since they found he had a bicuspid aortic valve, they suggested everyone in the immediate family get one as well since it's hereditary. Had mine 2 weeks after his so now I know I am looking at yet another $840 bill. If I had known the cost would be so overinflated I would have waited to get mine. To me this is just thievery.

I had no idea that we were going to have to pay this much out of pocket. I looked on our insurance web-site and it was not estimated on there. I had a tread mill stress test along with pictures taken before and after exercise. I was able to put 1/2 down and pay the rest later.