It's absolutely insane. I had a knee MRI in SF 5 ears ago, and the out of pocket cost, with insurance, was $900. Insurance paid around $2000. And the wait was 3 weeks. I found a private imaging place that could do it for $750 next day. Called the insurance company and told them that we could both save some money on this, and got "that's not how it works." Bureaucracy is societal cancer.