eli5: if an operational cost of an MRI scan is $50-75, why does it cost up to $3500 to a patient?

Question

Explain like I’m European.

In: Other

Answer 1

I’ve gotten at least 7 or 8 MRI, and none of them cost even nearly that much. The last one was a total of $700 between what insurance paid and what I had to cover combined. It was $235 for my portion.

Just did a quick Google and the average is $1325, so where are you getting this $3500 amount from? Was it a specialty procedure with the radioactive dye and all of that? Some of them can be fairly pricy, but the vast majority are under $800.