How do I get my knee examined without insurance?

1. Make an appointment with an orthopedist. 2. Go to the appointment and get examined. 3. After the appointment, as you're leaving, stop at the front desk, take out your credit card, and pay for the appointment.

Camazotz wrote:

1. Make an appointment with an orthopedist. 2. Go to the appointment and get examined. 3. After the appointment, as you're leaving, stop at the front desk, take out your credit card, and pay for the appointment.

How much does a basic exam cost on average?

I live in Chicago, plenty of them here.

Old Trick Knee wrote:

Camazotz wrote:

1. Make an appointment with an orthopedist. 2. Go to the appointment and get examined. 3. After the appointment, as you're leaving, stop at the front desk, take out your credit card, and pay for the appointment.

How much does a basic exam cost on average?

I live in Chicago, plenty of them here.

Here is a crazy idea: 1) call up the ortho office that you want to visit. 2) tell them you are paying cash for your visit and ask them how much it will cost.

I know, I know, I am a crazy guy but this idea might actually work. The office will tell you the cost and then they will tell you the cost if they take xrays.

Please tell us how this goes, I can't wait to hear!

Sp!kes wrote:

Old Trick Knee wrote:

How much does a basic exam cost on average?

I live in Chicago, plenty of them here.

Here is a crazy idea: 1) call up the ortho office that you want to visit. 2) tell them you are paying cash for your visit and ask them how much it will cost.

I know, I know, I am a crazy guy but this idea might actually work. The office will tell you the cost and then they will tell you the cost if they take xrays.

Please tell us how this goes, I can't wait to hear!

Thank you. I figure the other guy is a troll, but I have met people who actually think that way.

Through some of sarcasm in posts above,the advice is sound. There's no way anyone can tell you here, really. You'd need to speak to the orthopedic's office about it.

Here's a real answer: Join a track club or running club that has a doctor as a coach or fellow runner. Our track club has a former sprinter/sprint coach who is a general practitioner, and a former jumper/jumps coach who is an orthopedic surgeon. They check people out at practice, meets, and road races, every week, for free. They offer basic treatment, advise on physical therapy for some injuries, set up next-day appointments for more serious injuries with their own offices or specialists who they know, and make life much easier for the track club members.

Just go to a pro-bono clinic.. You're in a city I bet there are a few, you should at least be able to find a PT who can eval and treat you

I think they accept cash also but you may want to check first.

I'll have to get new snow tires this year. How do I do this without insurance?

Move to Canada...It's free

Canada Coach wrote:

Move to Canada...It's free

No, it's not.

considering the cost of a 10 minute MRI session for me in 2009 was $2,114 dollars, you will most likely go broke very quickly trying to fix your leg without insurance. Try getting a job with benefits and once you have insurance try to get it fixed without letting them know it was a "pre-existing condition." They'll try to deny you but you have to fight.

maybe2 wrote:

considering the cost of a 10 minute MRI session for me in 2009 was $2,114 dollars, you will most likely go broke very quickly trying to fix your leg without insurance. Try getting a job with benefits and once you have insurance try to get it fixed without letting them know it was a "pre-existing condition." They'll try to deny you but you have to fight.

The OP should definitely "shop around" if he's going to need an MRI. Costs can vary widely from facility to facility, even within a given city. I suspect that, with a little diligent digging around, one might be able to obtain a lower extremity MRI, from an out-patient radiology service (i.e., not a hospital radiology department) for around $1,000, and perhaps even less.

Such outfits will often offer a discount, or otherwise cut a deal, for patients who are without insurance or otherwise paying out-of-pocket. But one has to "comparison shop" -- easier today, what with the internet -- and know to ask.

Camazotz wrote:

Duhhhh wrote:

Just go to a pro-bono clinic.. You're in a city I bet there are a few, you should at least be able to find a PT who can eval and treat you

He said he didn't have insurance. He didn't say that he didn't have any money.

If money wasn't an issue don't you think he would have gotten the knee examined sooner?? A few weeks, let a lone 2 years, is a long time to be out of running with an injury if you have the money to go see a doctor.

If money wasn't an issue don't you think he would have gotten the knee examined sooner?? A few weeks, let a lone 2 years, is a long time to be out of running with an injury if you have the money to go see a doctor.

I haven't the faintest idea what the guy's financial situation is. I can only go by what he said/was asking, which is how he could get his "knee examined without insurance."

For all I know, in the intervening two years, he chose to spend several grand buying a new car, or a 62-inch flatscreen television, or whatever, but didn't go get his knee checked out because he was of the rather annoying (to me, anyway) mindset -- which I've seen expressed over the years by any number of societal parasites -- that a person shouldn't have to pay for the medical services he or she consumes.

Fortunately we have a situation where, in a couple years, you will be legally required to have insurance and there will be opportunites to get insurance.

Then we won't see threads like this.

Assuming you're not trolling, you're finding out that the problem of not having insurance is a real one, and that all the rhetoric of "the uninsured get taken care of in ER's", or Ron Paul's idea that charity will help out, is a load of bull.

Your problem, and many others, is elective. So the ER solution won't work-- they'll do a quick look, verify that you have no life or limb threatening condition, and tell you to go see an orthopedist.

The pro-bono clinic option likely won't work-- these clinics are generally staffed by people volunteering their time, and as someone who does this once every 2 months or so, I can tell you there are zero orthopedists on the list of volunteers at the clinic I volunteer with. I won't speculate as to why that is. It's primarily internists and family medicine docs-- you may get lucky that one of them has an interest in musculoskeletal issues, but pretty unlikely.

Calling the orthopedists office and asking for prices is likely going to be like pulling teeth-- the receptionist will tell you that without knowing what the doctor is planning on ordering, s/he can't provide an estimate of prices. The orthopedist is unlikely to take the time to listen and guess what sort of tests will be ordered (time on the phone to talk to a potential patient is not billable, so it probably won't happen).

Best bet: take time off, see if it gets better on it's own-- most minor things will. If it doesn't, an MRI will likely be in your future, as will either surgery or a bunch of physical therapy, or both. All of which you can't afford if you can't afford insurance. So in the interim, try get some. Call your state health department, and see if you qualify for any low-income plans the state runs. And make sure you remember this when people tell you that we have the best healthcare system in the world.

HCR wrote:

Fortunately we have a situation where, in a couple years, you will be legally required to have insurance and there will be opportunites to get insurance.

Then we won't see threads like this.

He won't be required to have insurance. He can choose to pay a $95 fine instead.

Oops, just re-read OP, and see that time off has already been tried. So, forget that, and figure out how to get on insurance, probably via some government subsidized plan (damn that big government). If it truly got no better over 2 years, it will almost certainly need more than a single office visit, and beyond that the bills add up fast.