Patients Spend Thousands More Getting MRIs, Colonoscopies and Other Procedures in Story County

You can spend an extra $2,000 by getting an MRI in Story County than it costs to get the same medical procedure in Polk County. The average cost here is $3,630 compared to $1,570 in Story County.

The cost in Story County is also a bit higher than the state average of $2,630.

That's according to data from New Choice Health, a private company that encourages people to become smarter healthcare consumers.

Other procedures such as colonoscopies are considerably more affordable in Polk County than Story County and, on average, across Iowa. Colonoscopies cost on average $1,990 in Polk County compared to $4,560 in Story County and $3,690 across Iowa. 

Big regional differences for medical procedures have been in the news lately: As the Washington Post wrote on Wednesday, "One hospital charges $8,000 - another $38,000." Using the same data as the Post, The New York Times listed out the prices of a series of procedures in hospitals across the country.

According to a Times breakdown of the data, prices vary significantly at hospitals in the Ames and Des Moines area among the most common type of cases.

Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames bills $26,800 for a permanent pacemaker insertion, according to the Times data. Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines bills Medicare on average $56,000 for a permanent pacemaker insertion. The bill is nearly $13,000 cheaper at Iowa Methodist Medical Center. 

Major joint replacement is another procedure with varied billing. At Mary Greeley, the bill is $36,500. At Mercy, the bill is $33,000, Iowa Methodist bills Medicare $40,000, Iowa Lutheran bills $42,300, according to the Times breakdown.

The Times and the Post used data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Patch worked with New Choice Health to examine the cost of four well-known procedures in Patch communities all across the country and found wide disparities – CT scans, colonoscopies, MRIs and mammograms. The examination revealed the costs can vary by thousands of dollars even within the same community.

Take Orange County. A CT scan in the sprawling suburban area can go for as little as $1,790 or for as much as $6,130 – a difference of more than $4,000. The cost of a colonoscopy in Suffolk County Massachusetts, can be as little as $2,570 or as much as $6,000.

The prices from New Choice Health reflect the “list price” for these procedures – kind of like the sticker price on a car. Health insurance companies often end up getting different discounts and reimbursements depending the arrangements they have worked out with providers. But the point, says New Choice’s Brian Keigley, is to give consumers the information they need to negotiate for themselves.

Looking at the data, some trends seem to emerge. Often the communities with the well-known medical research centers seem to be some of the most expensive places to have procedures done – or they at least go higher on the high-end of costs.